Gary Lineker, a former England international, described Leslie’s story as extraordinary.
Leslie was a striker for English football club Plymouth Argyle during the 1920s and 30s. According to the National Football Museum’s records, Leslie was selected to play for England in 1925. However, the call-up was later canceled.
An initiative has been launched to create a monument to honor Jack Leslie as an English footballer who was denied the opportunity to represent his country due to being Black.
“They [the selection board] must have forgotten that I am a colored boy,” Leslie stated many years later.
“There was quite a stir in the newspapers. People in the town of Plymouth were upset. Even though my mum was English, my daddy was black”
If he had played internationally, Leslie, a Jamaican-born footballer, would have been England’s first black player.
Instead, Viv Anderson now has this title and this occurred more than 50 years after Leslie was due to make his debut.
Leslie died in 1988 after scoring 137 goals in 401 games for Argyle. The club had just been promoted to the third tier in English football between 1924-1931. Luke Pollard, Member for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport posted on Twitter that Jack Leslie should have been first black player to wear an England shirt, but was instead dropped because of his skin colour.
The Plymouth Argyle team poses for a picture during the 1927-8 season. Leslie is on the left, second row from the front.
In a statement, Greg Clarke, Chairman of FA said that stories like these are “incredibly sad”.”Discrimination in football is unacceptable in any form and at any time. Remember Jack Leslie, the pioneer of football, and be grateful that football is today in a different place.”We are delighted to support this campaign, which will hopefully ensure Jack’s career gets the recognition it deserves.
“We have made great strides in recent decades to ensure English football is more diverse, inclusive.
The representation of players and staff in our national development and senior football teams shows that English football has made significant progress. However, we know that there are still many things to do on the pitch.”We are committed to eliminating discrimination in football and making it more reflective of the communities that support, love and watch the game.”Several famous Black footballers have been honored with statues in the UK, including Laurie Cunningham, Brendon Batson and Cyrille Regis, who were all West Brom players.
