When a famous footballer’s story contains as many non-football tales as those from on the pitch then you know it’s been a life well lived.Paul Mariner is a Plymouth Argyle hero – with a little help from Pelé and a lifeguard on Southport beach – an FA Cup and UEFA Cup winner with Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town, a scorer for England at the 1982 World Cup and a former Arsenal and Portsmouth striker who ended his career playing up front with George Best in a charity match while only partially sober.

Not a bad haul for a mechanical engineering student who gave up football as a teenager to go and play cricket with future England rugby captain Bill Beaumont instead.

A true front man in every sense – talented, brave and fearless – but ultimately his toughest fight was yet to come. Paul Mariner was diagnosed with the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma in October 2020.