Remembering Marc-Vivien Foe on his 40th birthday

Marc-Vivien Foe may have only spent a single season on loan at Manchester City but he made a lasting impression on everyone connected to the club. He scored nine goals under Kevin Keegan during the 2002-03 season, City's last at their old Maine Road ground, leaving an indelible mark on the club that remains to this day. He scored the last goal by a City player in their beautiful Moss Side stadium, meaning his place in the club's history will always be secure.

Foe died tragically in the summer of 2003 whilst on international duty for Cameroon, collapsing on the pitch during a game with Colombia in the semi-final of the Confederations Cup in Lyon. With no one around him, he fell to the ground and was unable to be resuscitated despite 45 minutes of attempts by medics to get his heart started again after being taken from the field, according to the BBC.

It shocked the watching world. Professional footballers are seen as extremely healthy people, almost immune to serious illness, particularly freakishly fit, box-to-box types like Foe. How could a man who had spent the season displaying such athleticism in the Premier League, playing 35 of City's 38 matches, suffer such an awful fate?

Today, May 1, would have been his 40th birthday. It's been almost 12 years since he died, yet he remains a City player no one will ever forget. The No. 23 shirt he wore throughout his one season at the club has been retired forever, quite a statement given the relatively short time he spent as a player in Manchester.

"It's a fitting tribute," says Chris Bailey, City's head of media content who was covering the club for the Manchester Evening News at the time Foe was playing in blue.

"I'd been talking to John Wardle, who was the chairman then, about doing something and that was one of the ideas we came up with as a tribute to him. It's not an easy decision and 23 is quite an iconic number —a lot of footballers would want that number—I guess a lot of players have asked for it since, and it's good that it's not been unretired.

"He made a big impression, he really did. I wasn't working for City at the time, but I know he made a big impression with people at the club. Everyone loved him. Everyone who met and talked to him...you couldn't not like the fella. He touched everyone. And the circumstances of his death were so tragic. I think it was a really fitting tribute, to be honest."

The club held a memorial service at Manchester Cathedral in the wake of his death and the turnout was overwhelming. Les Chapman, City's recently retired long-term kitman, says it's a day he'll never forget. "I can always remember the service in Manchester Cathedral. The place was packed and there were some really nice readings. It was a major event.

"He was such a lovely fella, which is why I think people made a great spectacle of the service at the cathedral and everything that went on at the club. It was really far and above what I've ever known before when somebody has died in football. It was particularly special given he'd been at the club such a short time."

Bailey says the service was a fitting tribute to a fine player:

"It was super-emotional. The turnout for that summed up what everyone thought. And even now, no one's ever forgotten him. And through all the changes that have happened here, the ownership changes, the status of the club in terms of winning trophies and being champions, still he's remembered from a team that wasn't fantastically successful. It just goes to show City and their fans never forget, which is great for the club."

He became known as a player unaffected by his fame, a family-orientated person with a mild, likeable manner. "He was very humble, nothing flash about him, very down to earth, very quietly spoken, always had a smile on his face but wasn't over-flamboyant. He just had a pleasant manner and lovely disposition," Chapman says.

Kevin Cummins was given complete access to Maine Road that season. A world-renowned photographer and lifelong City fan, Cummins was asked to capture the club's final year at their 80-year-old home and he, too, remembers Foe fondly.

"When he scored his two goals against Villa (December 2002), I was stood in the tunnel and wanted a shot of him as he came off the pitch, and I just said, 'Goal-machine Marco!' and he took his shirt off and gave it to me.

"I was staying with some friends in Manchester and I got a phone call around midnight from Les Chapman, and he said: 'Did Marco give you his shirt after the game?' and I said 'yeah.' He said: 'I told him not to give that shirt away—it's the only one he's got! He won't be able to play against Fulham.'

"So I said, 'You must have another shirt, Les,' and he said, 'No, he always wears XXL and we haven't got another until mid-January when Le Coq Sportif send us some more. He's always sending them back to his family in Africa. You're going to have to bring it down to London to the team hotel.'

"The team were staying at Chelsea Harbour and the next day, I was taking some pictures before the game, and I said to Foe, 'You're only playing because of me,' and when they got some new shirts, he made sure he gave me that one back.'"

Bailey, too, has one abiding memory of Foe, a player he says was always willing to give up his time for others.

"As a player, he had everything in terms of he could defend, he could attack, he could score goals, he could tackle, he was a kind of old-fashioned box-to-box midfielder. He scored a goal one night at Sunderland (a 3-0 win in December 2002), which I remember vividly.

"We went on a pre-season tour when I was working at the MEN to Denmark and I didn't know Marco, as we used to call him, and he didn't really know me. I introduced myself at the airport, and he told me had a bad back and he wasn't going to play and asked me if I'd carry his bag.

"So I ended up picking up his bag and carrying it for about four days. Every time he saw me he'd say, 'Chris, my back!' So I carried his bag halfway round Aarhus and other places in Denmark, and after about three or four days, he just laughed and said, 'There's nothing wrong with my back but thanks for carrying my bag!'

"The great thing was after that, anytime I wanted an interview or anytime I needed something for the paper post-match, he would always do it without fail. Footballers can be wary of you until they know they can trust you and that was the way I gained his trust. It was funny at the time and it was just his way of finding out whether this journalist was part of the team or just someone to be avoided. He found it really funny, and I'll never forget the grin he flashed me when he finally told me!

"And that night in Sunderland, they wouldn't let me as a Manchester Evening News man through to the back of the tunnel. So I was stood on the outside of the tunnel and spied him through the half-open door and shouted 'Marco, Marco!' and he was halfway up the stairs, heard my voice and came out and did the interview.

"There was that kind of relationship after that, he was a really good bloke, just a really nice fella, devoted to his family and his football.

"A really good footballer, too. I mean, his knee wasn't 100 percent when he was at City, so maybe we didn't see him at his absolute best, but God only knows how good he really was if he wasn't fully fit because he put in some fantastic performances. He would always give 100 percent."

It's clear he touched all those he came into contact with during his short City career. The football world lost a star and a gentleman that day in Lyon but no one connected to City will ever forget his contribution to their club.