Former Aston Villa and Coventry striker Dion Dublin has paid an emotional tribute to his "hero" Cyrille Regis during BBC's FA Cup coverage tonight.
Dublin, a pundit on tonight's panel along with Alan Shearer and Gianfranco Zola, was on the verge of tears on how he described the impact and influence the late West Brom striker, Regis had on himself as well as many other young black footballers.
There was Brendan and there was Laurie and there was Viv, but there was something about Cyrille. Myself, Deano mentioned it there we're the same age, Brian Deane, Wrighty, Les Ferdinand, Brighty, we were the players that looked at those kind of players and said 'Look, we wanna be like you'
Dublin's emotional tribute followed on from a beautiful tribute that BBC put together to pay homage to Regis, who passed away suddenly this past Monday.
"Cyrille Regis was my hero"
Pure emotion from Dion Dublin 🙏 pic.twitter.com/D1aYorEydm— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) January 17, 2018
Regis was awarded an MBE in 2008 for his services to football and was only the third black player in history to play for England, after Viv Anderson and Laurie Cunningham. Dion Dublin is another a long list of ex-players to speak out on the influence that Regis had on them as a youngster, with ex-Manchester United striker Andy Cole leading the tributes as the news broke on Monday.
BBC's wonderful tribute is garnering a lot of praise tonight also.
What a beautiful tribute to Cyrille Regis on BBC1. Beautiful tribute to a beautiful man.
— Richard Osman (@richardosman) January 17, 2018
What a tribute to Cyrille Regis BBC just did, before my time but must have been one hell of a man to move so many great players that much
— Dave Ferguson (@daveferg) January 17, 2018
Touching tribute to Cyrille Regis on BBC One. Hero.
— Matty Roper (@M_Roper96) January 17, 2018
Amazing tribute to Cyrille Regis on BBC. Can see the emotion from Dion. #RIPCyrilleRegis
— Ben Eccleston (@BenCovTel) January 17, 2018
@DionDublinsDube lovely and moving tribute on BBC tonight towards Cyrille Regis I have been lucky enough to see you both become legends for the mighty Sky Blues
— Stephen Woodward (@WoodwardStephen) January 17, 2018
The tribute ON BBC One was handled with absolute class. Took a lot for @DionDublinsDube to speak as well as he did after a superb video was shown. #CyrilleRegis
— Adam Jarrell (@adamjarrell) January 17, 2018
Hats off to Dion Dublin for showing emotion after the wonderful tribute to Cyrille Regis on BBC
— Kate Halford (@kate_halford7) January 17, 2018
its a funny thing, I cant say Im a football fan or expert....but I do remember certain players with affection and respect, Cyrille Regis, MBE is one of those.
great tribute on BBC just now— Magneto (Sir Ted Shuttleworth) (@TTted) January 17, 2018
Dublin finished off his tribute by simply adding "He will be missed", before finally choking up.
