Cyrille Regis - International Career

International Career

Regis' dual French and British nationality made him eligible to play for either the English or French national sides, but it was England that he chose to represent. He made his England under-21 debut on 19 September 1978, in a 2–1 victory over the Denmark under-21s in Hvidovre. His first England B game was a 1–0 win against Czechoslovakia B in Prague on 28 November 1978. He played in two further matches for the B team in 1980. He scored his first goal for the England under-21s on 5 June 1979, in a 3–1 away win against Bulgaria. The result helped England reach the latter stages of the 1980 European Championship, although it was the only one out of six qualifying matches in which Regis participated. He played in the away legs of both the quarter-final and semi-final, where England lost to East Germany. In all he played six times for the under-21s, scoring three goals.

Despite winning five caps for the full England side, Regis never played the full 90 minutes for his country at senior level; he played as a substitute three times and was himself substituted twice. He made his international debut on 23 February 1982 in a 4–0 win over Northern Ireland in the Home International Championship at Wembley. Regis came on as a substitute for Trevor Francis in the 65th minute. His final international appearance for England was in 1987 against Turkey at Wembley, which ended in an 8–0 win for the home side, where he came on for the last 20 minutes.

He was the third black player to be capped by England at the highest level after Viv Anderson and Laurie Cunningham.

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