Prolific goalscorer best remembered for World Cup miss.

Wembley winning goalscorer and West Bromwich Albion legend Jeff Astle died on 19 January, 2002, aged 59.

He was Albion ’s most prolific striker during a ten year spell at the midlands club, scoring in every round of the “Baggies” 1968 FA Cup triumph.

And he became known to younger football followers as a regular on ITV’s ‘Fantasy Football’ programme, co-hosted by Baggies fan Frank Skinner.

Sadly, his prowess as a header of the heavy leather footballs used in his playing days was to be a contributory factor to the disease which caused his death.

Jeffrey Astle was born on May 13 1942, in the Nottinghamshire village of Eastwood , joining local Third Division side Notts County as a junior in 1961.

A protégé of County’s famous England centre-forward Tommy Lawton, Mr Astle scored 41 goals in 116 games, mainly due to his aerial strength, soon attracting the attention of West Bromwich Albion.

Albion signed him in the summer of 1964 for £25,000 and his impact was immediate, scoring twice on his home debut against their arch-rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers.

A League Cup winner in 1966, he scored the only goal in Albion ’s last major triumph, their extra-time win over Everton in the 1968 FA Cup Final - a left foot shot rather than a trademark header. His goal in the 1970 League Cup Final made him the first player to score in both domestic cup finals at Wembley.

Mr Astle won five England caps, winning selection for the Mexico World Cup in 1970. But against Brazil in Guadalajara , he gained unwanted fame by missing a golden opportunity to equalise, dragging a left foot shot wide from 12 yards.

Injury brought his Albion career to an end in 1974, after 174 goals in 371 appearances. And following a spell at Southern League Dunstable, with George Best a team mate on one occasion, he retired from the game.

He continued to live close to Albion ’s Hawthorns ground and set up his own industrial cleaning business in 1977, with an advertising slogan acknowledging his football career, ‘Astle never misses the corners.’

He returned to the public eye in 1994, as a guest on ITV’s comic take on the game, ‘Fantasy Football’, establishing a weekly slot lasting four years, ‘Jeff Astle sings’, crooning over the closing credits.

His popularity with Baggies fans never wavered. And following his passing, a set of gates to the Hawthorns were named the “Astle Gates” in his honour after a long fans’ campaign.

But years of heading absorbent leather footballs had contributed to his premature death. Coroner Andrew Haigh recorded a verdict of “death by industrial disease”, caused partly by the repeated minor trauma of heading the ball.

Mr Astle was popular both on and off the pitch. Former team mate John Wile said: “He was a very humble fellow but a master of his art and a laugh a minute in the dressing room.”

And to West Bromwich Albion fans all around the world, he continues to be known simply as “The King.”