Justin Fashanu

Fashanu began his career as an apprentice with Norwich City, turning professional in December 1978. He made his league debut on 13 January 1979, against West Bromwich Albion, and settled into the Norwich side, scoring regularly and occasionally spectacularly. In 1980, he won the BBC Goal of the Season award, for a spectacular goal against Liverpool. He managed a total of 103 senior appearances for Norwich, scoring 40 goals. While at the club he was also capped six times for England at under-21 level, although an anticipated call-up to the senior side never materialised. He scored 19 league goals in the 1980–81 season, but it was not enough to prevent the Canaries from being relegated. Fashanu's name had been linked with bigger clubs for some time, and his inevitable departure from Carrow Road came in August 1981 when he signed for Nottingham Forest, becoming Britain's first £1 million black footballer. His career stalled as his professional relationship with manager Brian Clough deteriorated; Clough, it would appear, was disturbed by the rumours of Fashanu's visits to gay nightclubs and bars. His goals and then confidence dried up as he failed to fit in with the playing and lifestyle demands of Clough, especially after Clough had discovered his homosexuality and barred him from training with the side. He scored just three goals in 32 league games for Forest in 1981–82. In his autobiography, Clough recounts a verbal dressing-down he gave Fashanu after hearing rumours that he…

Fashanu was the son of a Nigerian barrister living in the UK and a Guyanese nurse named Pearl. When his parents split up, he and his younger brother John were sent to a Barnardo's care home. When he was six, he and John were fostered by Alf and Betty Jackson and were brought up in Shropham, Norfolk. Fashanu excelled at boxing as a youth, and was rumoured at one time to be pursuing a professional boxing career instead of his footballing career. Fashanu attended Attleborough High School in the 1970s where his talent for football developed, and was scouted by Norwich City scout John Sainty in a school match against Thetford Grammar School in 1974.

Fashanu was listed at number 99 in the Top 500 Lesbian and Gay Heroes in The Pink Paper. In March 2009, a football team, The Justin Fashanu All-stars, was named at a special event in Brighton, supported by the FA. The team, named in his honour, was created by the Justin Campaign, which is a campaign against homophobia in football and promotes the inclusion of openly gay players in football. In 2017, Netflix released the film, Forbidden Games: The Justin Fashanu Story. In 2023, a large mural of Fashanu was painted onto the wall of a pub, the Fat Cat and Canary, in Norwich, replacing a mural of former Norwich manager, Daniel Farke.