Carlos Everton Francis (born 21 August 1962) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

and

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

, and in the Alliance Premier League for Enfield. Francis was born in

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancien ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He joined

as an apprentice in June 1979, and turned professional the following year. A pacy winger, Francis made his debut in the First Division on the opening day of the 1982–83 season, in the starting eleven for a 3–0 defeat at

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

.Matthews, p. 218. He was the first black player to appear for the club. He made one more start and three substitute appearances that season, but his inconsistency restricted his first-team football. In December 1983 he joined

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

club

on a month's loan, where he played five league games. Francis was released in 1984, and he went on to play three games without scoring in the Alliance Premier League for Enfield in the 1984–85 season.

References

External links

Photo and career stats
at sporting-heroes.net 1962 births Living people Footballers from the London Borough of Newham People from West Ham English men's footballers Men's association football wingers Birmingham City F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Enfield F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Black British sportsmen {{England-footy-midfielder-1960s-stub