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British football. There was something quite surreal about it all when I was giving him guitar lessons!" While at Nottingham Justin had developed an interest in evangelical Christianity, something that came with him to Brighton. He became a regular part of the congregation at Emmanuel Full Gospel Church at 1 De Montfort Road. “I remember reading in The Argus that he was a born again Christian and never swore. Fifteen minutes into his first pre-season friendly someone clattered into him and you heard the word ‘bastard’ proclaimed by Fashanu,” came a comment from Steve Agace on the North Stand Chat forum. The Albion were based at the Goldstone Ground opposite Hove Park. “After training he’d go for lunch with the other players in Hove Park Tavern. He was an absolute darling,” posted Philip Rees on the Brighton Past Facebook group.
JUSTIN FASHANU BRIGHTON MEMORIES
In Black History Month, Alf Le Flohic looks back on the life of Justin Fashanu, who signed to Brighton & Hove Albion, 1985–87 and was the only footballer in the UK to ever come out while still playing. He was posthumously inducted into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame in February ) The name Justin Fashanu is remembered in
Brighton by an unusual cross-section of people: football enthusiasts, the gay community, the black community and evangelical Christians. The sheer diversity of those groups tells you a lot about the complexity of the man himself. Born in London in 1961 to a Nigerian lawyer and Guyanese nurse, at the age of three he was placed into a children’s home with his younger brother, John, when their parents split. They were there for two years before the Jacksons, a white couple near Norwich, adopted them. Both brothers went on to a career in football, but Justin showed talent first. To put it simply, he became a huge star. At just 20 years old he was the first black player to be transferred for £1 million. Brian Clough bought him as a goal scorer for Nottingham Forest, but things didn’t go well. Not only were the goals not forthcoming but there was a personality clash between them. Clough heard rumours of Fashanu being seen out at
“that bloody poofs’ club” and suspended him. He even had the police remove Fashanu from the grounds when he arrived for training. A year later Fashanu was loaned to Southampton and then sold to Notts County, before signing a three-year contract with Brighton & Hove Albion in 1985. Before he arrived, it would be fair to say Fashanu wasn’t popular with Albion supporters. While playing for Notts County the previous year, he had inadvertently hospitalised two Brighton players. However, once Fashanu had transferred to the Albion, the crowds began singing “We’ll take good care of you, Fashanu, Fashanuuuuu” to the tune of a British Airways advert of the time. Justin bought an acoustic guitar from Southern Music in Castle Street, and staff member Yaasin Hanif agreed to give him lessons. “I was one of maybe three black guys I was aware of in the area. I remember being so proud when I was a teenager with a player who ‘looked like me’ in the upper echelons of
The club gave Justin the use of the basement flat of 26 Regency Square, where he was soon visited by long-term friend and fellow footballer, Neil Slawson. “When I heard that Justin went to Brighton I was thrilled, because not only was it my hometown, but I had been on trial with Brighton the year before and I knew the squad and thought, oh he’s going to do great there. “I went to go visit him and right out of his mouth he goes, ‘You can't live with me here.’ I said, ‘I wasn’t asking,’ but he says, ‘Yeah, cos I'm ducking and diving all the time and it wouldn't be a good match’. I took that to mean ‘you’re going to cramp my style’. My personal opinion is he loved Brighton because he could be freer and there were more people of likemind and like interests. It just allowed him to be freer because he was truly conflicted. I don't think he’d have been as much in conflict if he wasn't religious and in the public eye.” Fairly soon fellow Regency Square resident Terry Wing struck up a friendship with Justin. “My bedroom’s right at the very top, and we’d sit at the window and just watch people go by and chat. He was a lonely soul, he said he was a born-again Christian, which he wasn’t. He gave himself that title to offset any suggestions about his sexuality. “I'd be like his handbag – if he wanted to go out to a restaurant for a meal with a friend, it would never be booked in his name, I’d book it.”
“Clough heard rumours of Fashanu being seen out at ‘that bloody poofs’ club’ and suspended him. He even had the police remove Fashanu from the grounds when he arrived for training”
