How the FIRST black pro footballer was the fastest man but forgotten for decades

WHEN the Three Lions gather at their training HQ, they pass the giant statue of a goalie making a ­fingertip save.

The 16ft colossus hewn in bronze at St George's Park, Staffs, shows the leaping figure of Arthur Wharton and is designed to inspire success against the odds.

For trailblazer Arthur was Britain and the world's first black professional footballer and also the fastest man on Earth.

Arthur was on the pitch when Liverpool played their first ever game at Anfield and reached the FA Cup semi-final with the then giants of the game Preston North End.

Gary Lineker wrote of the showman who was footballing box office gold in the 1880s: “He used to catch the ball between his legs.

“He would sometimes pull the crossbar down (it was made of tape in those days) so shots would miss.”

Though blessed with supreme talent, Arthur would never pull on a Three Lions shirt.

Shaun Campbell, director of the Arthur Wharton Foundation, said: “There was quite a strong call for Arthur to play for England but the colour of his skin, it was said in the day, denied him that opportunity.”

Sheffield United star Arthur had to battle against vile prejudice in Victorian Britain.

Once, when competing in an athletics race, he overheard fellow competitors calling him the N-word.

Arthur turned to the two men and told them: “Allow me to give you to understand, I not only run but do a little boxing when required.”

The abuse soon stopped and Arthur duly won the race.

The extraordinary story of how a Ghana-born trainee missionary had lit up England's national game had largely been forgotten until the 1990s.

Arthur was born in Jamestown (now Accra in Ghana) in the then British colony of the Gold Coast in 1865 into an upper-middle class family.

His merchant father