Did you know, if you’re a man living in the UK there’s an 8/1 chance that you’ll be affected by prostate cancer?

In 2013 Prostate Cancer UK is aiming to lengthen those odds by launching the Sledgehammer Fund. And as we're the Official Charity Partner of The Football League in 2012-13, who better to help us spread our message than fans of the beautiful game?

The end of January means one thing: the frantic final day of the transfer window. In the spirit of wheeling and dealing, and to celebrate a day when administration staff at clubs around the country are priming their fax machines, we asked the Guardian's Scott Murray to give us the lowdown on some of the biggest bargains in history: players who have gone from the lower leagues to football stardom in the blink of an eye.

If you like what you read, text CRACK to 70004* to make a £5 donation to the Sledgehammer Fund.

Here are Scott's top lower-league transfers...

Saint Gareth: A fresh-faced Bale in his Southampton days. Photo courtesy of Action Images

 

William Dean (Tranmere Rovers to Everton)
Dean might have been playing in Division Three North for Tranmere in 1925, but he wasn't much of a risk for Everton – he'd scored 27 goals in 30 games. Newcastle and Arsenal were also interested, but he went to Goodison Park, where he scored 383 times in 433 appearances including a staggering 60 league goals in the 1927-28 season – a top-flight record that still stands today. "Give me the ball and I'll put it in the net," he'd say. Just don't refer to him as Dixie – he hated the nickname.

Kevin Keegan (Scunthorpe United to Liverpool)
Young Kevin's record at Scunny doesn't look anything special at first glance – 18 goals in 124 games – but he was playing on the right side of midfield. Bill Shankly snapped him up in 1971, converting him into a striker, and Keegan scored within 12 minutes of his debut for Liverpool against Nottingham Forest. He didn't look back: within a year he was playing for England; by 1977 he had league, European and FA Cup titles under his belt; by 1979 he'd won the Ballon d'Or twice, thanks to his efforts at Hamburg.

Stuart Pearce (Wealdstone to Coventry)
Pearce was playing for non-league Wealdstone and working as an electrician and plumber when Bobby Gould signed him for Coventry in 1983. Within two years Pearce been taken by the legendary Brian Clough to Nottingham Forest, where, during his early years at the club he would advertise his services as a sparky in the matchday programme.

Roberto Baggio (Vicenza to Fiorentina)
The divine ponytail started out with third-tier Vicenza before being snaffled by Fiorentina in 1985, where he became an instant legend, culminating in him inspiring the Viola to the final of the 1990 Uefa Cup. However, he then became an instant pariah by joining the hated Juventus (who beat Fiorentina in that final) soon after. He won Serie A titles with Juve and later Milan, but of course he's mainly remembered for missing that penalty. But hey, he did drag Italy to the 1994 World Cup final on his own, and with only one good leg as well…

Ian Wright (Dulwich Hamlet to Crystal Palace)
Wrighty proved you should never give up on your dreams. Wright was 21 years old – ancient for an unproven footballer – and plying his trade in non-league football when Crystal Palace came calling in 1985. He built a reputation in the second tier, then exploded on to the national scene in the 1990 FA Cup final, scoring twice against Manchester United. He was nearly 28 when he finally got his big move, to Arsenal.

David Platt (Crewe Alexandra to Aston Villa)
Platt had spent his early days at Manchester United but couldn't break through, and went instead to Crewe, where he attracted the attention of Villa boss Graham Taylor. The future England manager wisely built his team around Platt, and the goalscoring midfielder inspired Villa to a surprise second-place finish in the league. It was part of a meteoric rise: within two years of turning up at Villa Park, Platt was an England regular and one of the Belgium-bothering stars of Italia 90.

Denis Irwin (Oldham Athletic to Manchester United)
Irwin started out at a big club – Leeds – but Billy Bremner's team were going through a transitional phase. It wasn't working out for Irwin, so he left to quietly build a reputation for dependable brilliance at Boundary Park, helping Oldham reach the League Cup final and FA Cup semis in 1990. His reward was a £625,000 move to Old Trafford, where he integrated seamlessly, setting up both goals in a 2-0 win over Coventry on his league debut. He went on to win all the major trophies in club football.

Tim Cahill (Millwall to Everton)
Everton didn't stop trawling the lower leagues for talent after whistling for Dixie. Their title-winning side of 1985 – which also won a Uefa prize for Team of the Year – was full of talent unearthed from smaller clubs: Neville Southall (Bury), Peter Reid (Bolton), Trevor Steven (Burnley), Graeme Sharp (Dumbarton). That tradition has continued under David Moyes, perhaps most successfully in the form of Aussie midfielder Cahill, who scored 56 goals in 226 league appearances – and became the first Evertonian since Dean to score in three separate games against Liverpool.

Gareth Bale (Southampton to Tottenham)
The Saints have had the conveyor belt running at full pelt in recent years: Wayne Bridge, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Luke Shaw. But perhaps the best of the bunch is the genuinely world-class Bale, who broke through at St Mary's as a 16-year-old in 2006, and signed for Spurs just over a year later for a fee that ended up being £7m. Bale scored three in his first four games for Tottenham, though it wasn't all smooth sailing: it took the Welshman 25 matches to experience a win with his new club. Worth the wait, though, eh?

Can you think of any other footballers who had a meteoric rise from the lower leagues? Let us know in the comments section below.

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