Fulham have announced that they will commission a statue of their finest-ever player Johnny Haynes.

The club plan to commemorate the achievements of Britain’s first £100-a-week footballer who represented the Whites throughout his entire career with a statue outside the stand already renamed in his honour. The news is the culmination of a year-long campaign by a group of Fulham fans to ensure that Haynes is properly celebrated outside the club’s historic Craven Cottage ground.

Haynes, who died in October 2005 after a car crash, was nicknamed ‘the Maestro’ having become one of England’s finest-ever inside forwards. He made 594 appearances for Fulham – still a club record – and scored 147 goals, remaining loyal to his boyhood club despite coming no closer than two FA Cup semi-finals to winning major honours. Haynes was capped 56 times by England, whom he captained at the 1962 World Cup. He missed out on the 1966 success after injuring himself in a car accident in Blackpool.