Footballer, Gentleman, Evertonian are the words etched onto the base of his statue, and which summarise the life and career of British football’s greatest goalscorer.

But talent scout?

In January 1939, just a few months after hanging up boots that had scored more goals than any other English footballer, and a few weeks into his new career as a talent scout – legendary Everton goalscorer Dixie Dean received an unexpected request for assistance from the west coast of Ireland.

Could he find a goalscorer for Sligo Rovers?

As always, Dixie delivered. Spectacularly.

He only went and unearthed the greatest goalscorer ever to pull on a number nine jersey for the modest Irish outfit.

William Ralph Dean decided to accept the invitation himself – and in doing so penned a romantic swansong to one of football’s most celebrated careers.

Yet it’s an anomaly that Dixie’s four month spell with the Bit O’Red is one of the least chronicled periods of the great man’s life.

It is a colourful, charismatic and uplifting tale – and more than 80 years later the story has finally been brought back to life by Paul Little in the pages of “In The Shadow of Benbulben” (Benbulben being the distinctive flat-topped mountain which overlooks the town).

An Irish freelance football writer, Paul’s grandfather, Bill Cosgrave, attended one of the matches Dean played in Ireland – and helped offer inspiration for his project.

“It’s a story that has long captivated me – but one that was never told in detail and was in danger of being erased by the sands of time,” he said.

“Those pieces written about it over the years that piqued my interest never quite did justice to what is surely one of Irish football’s most compelling stories. Indeed, once I decided to look into it a little more and hit upon the idea for a book on the subject I was amazed about how little people knew of it – if they knew anything at all.

“And while that made me a little sad for how the history of the game in Ireland is allowed too easily to fade, it also gave me inspiration.”

Paul traces the tale back to its origins, Tuesday, January 24, 1939, when Sligo received a six word telegram ‘Offer accepted, will be there Friday.”

It culminates in Sligo’s first ever appearance in an FAI Cup Final.

What takes place in between contains drama, spectacle and derring do.

Dean was just 32 and agreed to represent a recently formed club based in a market town of just 13,000 citizens. But his arrival captured the imagination of the entire Emerald Isle.

The league season was already halfway through – but the first round of that season’s Irish Cup competition, the FAI Cup, was about to be played – a competition Sligo had never won.

If you don’t know your Irish football history, no spoilers here.

But 70 years before Seamus Coleman crossed the Irish Sea to forge the newest link between Sligo and Everton, William Ralph Dean created the original link with the Bit O’Red.

It is a relationship which endures.

Dean was invited back to Sligo when the Bit O’Red reached their first post war Cup final in 1970.

And in 2013, when Sligo made their Champions League debut against Norwegian side Molde, managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, three generations of Dixie’s family – daughter Barbara, grand-daughter Melanie and great grandchildren Daniel and Scarlett – took the flight to Knock on the west coast of Ireland to attend the showpiece clash.

It is a relationship which is still going strong today – Melanie provides a foreword to the latest book about her granddad’s life.

It’s a riveting read.

In The Shadow of Benbulben is available now from Pitch Publishing.