(Image credit: David Cannon/Allsport/Getty Images) Instead, Arsenal scout Terry Murphy was impressed by Rocastle’s boundless energy and balletic grace on the ball, and eventually persuaded Gunners boss Terry Neill to offer him a place in the club’s academy.ĭein, meanwhile, first saw Rocastle play for the youth team a year later, in 1983. He was offered a trial at Millwall, but the Lions declined to sign him. Word started to spread about the boy from Brockley. I know I’m biased, but he could do it all.” If it was tight he would drop back, making sure they didn’t concede. “If they were winning, Dave would be upfront, trying to score more. “It was hard to pin him down,” says Steve Rocastle. Nominally a central midfielder, Rocastle’s obvious talent meant he could play anywhere on the pitch. He soon found his weekends taken up by representing local club Vista, then Lewisham Way – a club set up specifically to give young black boys from the local housing estates an opportunity to play. Although he thought about becoming a PE teacher one day, it was clear that his gift for football would take him in another direction. “He always had our back.”Īt school, Rocastle was a model student. “He was our role model and we all looked up to him,” his brother Steve explains to FFT.

(Image credit: Mark Leech/Offside via Getty Images)

Once in a Lifetime by Gavin Newsham