QPR Director of Football Les Ferdinand has paid tribute to former England international Cyrille Regis who has died at the age of 59.

Regis won five caps for England between 1982 and 1987, having been one of the stars of the Baggies team between 1977 and 1984.

He scored 112 goals in 297 appearances for Albion before moving on to Coventry, winning the FA Cup with the Sky Blues in 1987.

Ctrille Regis, standing outside Buckingham Palace with his MBE

Regis played for Hayes FC in the 1976/77 season and scored 24 goals in 61 appearances before being signed by West Brom for £5,000 in May 1977.

He worked as an agent for the Stellar Group after his retirement from the game, and the agency's chief executive Jonathan Barnett released a statement to Press Association Sport on Monday.

"Cyrille was a wonderful person to work with and his death has left everyone in the company and the players he represented with a great sense of sadness," Barnett said.

"Our deepest condolences go out to Julia and all of Cyrille's family and close friends.

"Cyrille was a pioneer in British football and hugely respected by everyone in the game. He was a role model to his young clients and a genuinely lovely man."

The statement from Stellar also praised Regis for his "passion, determination and integrity, especially in the way he would champion the careers of up and coming players".

Speaking to Sky Sports about the impact that Regis had him, Ferdinand said: "There's not enough words that can be used about him. They were the trailblazers for us.

“That era of Cyrille, the late Laurie Cunningham, George Berry and those players, it was the first time as a young black player that I’d seen three players playing in one team on a consistent basis.

"I’d seen black players playing here and there on a sporadic basis before, but week-in week-out these guys went through a lot of what I didn’t have to go through."

Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.

You can set up your app to see all the latest news and events from your area, plus receive push notifications for breaking news.

Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android .