Early Life
Regis was born in Maripasoula, French Guiana, to Robert and Mathilde Regis. His father moved to England in 1962, with the rest of the family, including Cyrille, following a year later. The family lived initially in the Portobello Road area of London, later moving to Stonebridge. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Regis attended Kensal Rise Primary School and later, Cardinal Hinsley RC Secondary School in Harlesden. At Cardinal Hinsley he participated in athletics, cricket and football, and was called up to represent the Borough of Brent boys football team. He was also offered a trial by Chelsea, but was unable to take advantage due to a hamstring injury. Regis progressed to playing Sunday league football for Ryder Brent Valley. He then moved to Oxford & Kilburn Boys before re-joining Ryder Brent Valley. After leaving school, Regis trained as an electrician, earning a City and Guilds diploma; he continued to practise the trade until his move into professional football. Cyrille is the cousin of John Regis MBE, the former English athlete, who still holds the UK record for the 200 metres.
Read more about this topic: Cyrille Regis
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Our instructed vagrancy, which has hardly time to linger by the hedgerows, but runs away early to the tropics, and is at home with palms and banyans—which is nourished on books of travel, and stretches the theatre of its imagination to the Zambesi.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
““You are old, Father William,” the young man cried,
“And life must be hastening away;
You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death:
Now tell me the reason, I pray.”
“I am cheerful, young man,” Father William replied;
“Let the cause thy attention engage;
In the days of my youth I remembered my God,
And He hath not forgotten my age.””
—Robert Southey (1774–1843)