James Lang was the first paid footballer

By SIMON MULLOCK AND MARK METCALF

LIONEL MESSI will have never heard of Jimmy Lang – but it's likely that the little-known Scot paved the way for the Argentine to become football's richest player.

It is almost 144 years since Glasgow-born Lang made the journey from his home town to Sheffield to answer the promise of a better life - and the chance to become the first man to earn money from the game.

Barcelona star Messi now earns a bank-busting £62million-a-year thanks to his status as football's most coveted talent.

That's a far cry from the few pounds that Lang would have earned when he made his debut ub November 1876 for the club that was to later become Sheffield Wednesday.

But the arrangement, that now sees players paid a fortune for their talent and the entertainment they provide to millions of fans around the world, broke a FA regulation that was regarded as sacrosanct by the Public School old boys who had first formulated the laws of the game.

In the Victorian era, sport was the preserve of gentlemen amateurs.

But football was about to be transformed by the northern working classes – with the help of a band of Scotsmen with a natural talent for the game.

Historians believe they can now confirm with some confidence that Lang should be recognised as the world's first professional footballer.

Just as in 'The English Game', the Netflix series that explains how football was wrested away from the Old Etonians, this is a tale of two Scotsman.

The small-screen series, written by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellows, tells of how Fergus Suter and Jimmy Love were tempted away from Partick in 1878 by the mill-owning benefactor of Lancastrian club Darwen.

But by then, Lang and fellow Scot Peter Andrews were already settled in England - and thrilling fans of the opposite side of the Pennines.

Andrews was the first to move south of the border – in the autumn of 1876 – after playing alongside Lang in a Glasgow representative team that had beaten Sheffield and Hallam 2-0 in an annual challenge match played in front of a 6,000 crowd at Bramall Lane.

Andrews signed for Sheffield Heeley when he took residence in the city and made his debut against Thursday Wanderers in the Sheffield FA Challenge Cup on November 2, 1876.

For years, it was believed Andrews must have being paid to play.

But he was already 30 years old when he moved to South Yorkshire and his middle-class standing means it was unlikely that he would have accepted cash to play a game that was still strictly amateur.

Lang, who was 25 when he joined The Wednesday, was from more humble stock.

He lost an eye in an industrial accident while working in the Clydeside shipyard of John Brown and Co in 1869.

But that didn't halt his football career - and five yers later he was in the Clydesdale team beaten 2-0 by Queen's Park in the first-ever Scottish Cup final.

Lang had already won the first of two Scotland caps, scoring a goal in the 4-0 win over Wales in Glasgow, before making the 250-mile steam train journey to settle in Sheffield.

He was put on the payroll of a knife-making firm owned by Wednesday official Walter Fearnhough and made his debut for the club on November 25, 1876.

Newspaper reports confirm that Lang set up the Wednesday goal for Tom Butler, describing him as “the celebrated player who has come to reside here.”

It seems Lang was given considerable freedom to concentrate on his football rather than knife making.

He was even allowed to return to Scotland to play in another Scottish Cup final when his Third Lanark side were beaten 1-0 by Vale of Leven in 1878.

Lang helped The Wednesday win the Sheffield Challenge Cup three times and was also in the team that played in the club's first-ever FA Cup tie.

Later, he played for Attercliffe, Sheffield Zulus and Northwich Victoria.

Football historian Martin Westby said: “Peter Andrews did play before Lang but I am convinced by research done by fellow historian Graham Curry that Andrews was a middle-class man working close to the Heeley FC ground.

“On the balance of probabilities this is a man who had no need for payment to play the game he loved and moved south for work reasons.

“This is opposed to ex-shipyard worker Jimmy Lang, who in my opinion, travelled from Glasgow to Sheffield purely for football and remuneration reasons.”

Match report on Lang's debut game.