William ‘Dixie’ Dean was the epitome of the rugged British centre-forward: strong as a rhino, and often playing like one.
While his goalscoring record has gone down in English football history as simply unbeatable – just ask Manchester City striker Erling Haaland – if you want to know how rough the game was in Dixie’s era, consider this: playing in a reserves match for Tranmere when he was 16, Dean was challenged so ferociously that he lost a testicle.
