Icons of football: Ex Celtic & West Ham striker Frank McAvennie
Bianca Westwood, TV presenter and journalist
I’d only just turned 11 when he signed for West Ham and there wasn’t much enthusiasm - he was an unknown in East London, this guy from St Mirren.
Because of a dispute between clubs and TV companies, you didn’t really get to see this blonde bombshell scoring all these goals.
I was lucky that we had season tickets, so we knew why Frank had set East London alight. We had confidence that he was going to score.
He seems like a larger-than-life character but when you get to know him you realise there’s a sensitivity there that not many people know exists.
He had arrogance on the football field but once you have a conversation with him you realise there’s a lot more depth to Frank than that.
Frank’s an icon because he changed our lives as West Ham fans. This skinny 26-year-old with a blonde mullet completely turned our world upside down.
He scored goals in a way that you’ll never forget.
There aren’t that many born goal scorers around. If Frank McAvennie was around today and he was scoring 25 to 30 goals a season, he’d be worth £100m easily.
