The great Sir Tom Finney was born on April 5 in 1922.
Widely acknowledged as one of football’s greatest ever, Finney represented Preston for his entire career, becoming the ultimate one-club man as he made 569 first-class appearances.
Here, the PA news agency looks back at others to have forged a deep connection to one club.
Ryan Giggs (Manchester United, 29 years, 963 appearances)
Perhaps the most famous, Giggs had a 29-year association with Manchester United going from academy player through to caretaker manager.
A brilliant left-footed winger, Giggs made 963 appearances for United between 1990 and 2014, winning 34 honours under Sir Alex Ferguson.
He took over for a short period, when Ferguson’s successor David Moyes was sacked, and now manages Wales.
Paolo Maldini (AC Milan, 31 years, 902 appearances)
The Italy international was one of the players of his generation and one of the greatest defenders of all time, operating across the back four with consummate ease. A youth team product who joined as a 10-year-old, he made his first-team debut in 1985 and retired aged 41.
He made a return to AC in a strategic role in 2018 and in the summer of 2019 was made the club’s technical director.
Francesco Totti (Roma, 30 years, 786 appearances)
Joined the Roma youth squad in 1989 as a 13-year-old and made his debut in 1993. The attacking midfielder’s name has become synonymous with Roma because of the length of his dedication. He scored a club-record 307 goals for Roma and stayed on as a director before resigning in 2018.
Jamie Carragher (Liverpool, 25 years, 737 appearances)
The Everton-supporting youngster joined the Reds’ youth set-up in 1988, eventually making his first-team debut nine years later. He went on to become the club’s second-highest appearance-maker behind the uncatchable Ian Callaghan before retiring in 2013.
Ted Sagar (Everton, 24 years, 497 appearances)
The goalkeeper joined Everton from Thorne Colliery in 1929 and made his debut the following year, eventually retiring in 1953 with a record 463 league game tally which was eventually broken by another goalkeeper, one Neville Southall.
