“Wayne Rooney’s on a hundred grand a week. Mind you, so was I until the police found my printing machine.”

Try telling Mickey Thomas that the FA Cup has lost its magic. Wherever the 53-year-old former Wales winger goes, people want to talk about that goal. Thomas was no ordinary football player. He was locked up in prison for nine months for selling fake ten and twenty pound notes; he was savagely beaten by his former brother-in-law after he was caught playing away with his ex-wife’s sister; he scored for Wales when they beat England 4-1 in 1980, and he played for 11 clubs, including Manchester United and Chelsea. But all anyone wants to talk about is that goal.

“I just went for power,” Thomas said. “I couldn’t have hit it any better.”

Nobody gave Wrexham a chance when they played Arsenal in the third round of the FA Cup at the Racecourse Ground 16 years ago. The aristocrats from North London were the champions and second in the old first division when they travelled to North Wales to take on a team who were propping up the Football League in 92nd place. By then, Thomas was in the twilight years of an extraordinary career that began at Wrexham and ended at Inter – Inter Cardiff.

Twenty years and 11 clubs after starting as an apprentice at Wrexham, he got one last chance to make a name for himself on the big stage in January 1992. Arsenal were leading 1-0 with 20 minutes to go when Wrexham won a free kick on the edge of the penalty area. Thomas placed the ball down, took four steps back and smashed it past David Seaman into the top left-hand corner of the net. Steve Watkin sent Wrexham fans wild soon after by sliding the ball past Seaman and knocking the champions out of the Cup.

“It was unbelievable,” Thomas, who works for XFM radio station in Manchester, said. “That result sent shock waves through football. I’d played for Man United in the Cup Final when we lost 3-2 to Arsenal in ’79, so it was nice to put one over them – even if I did have to wait 13 years.”

It took Thomas 15 minutes to make it back to the Wrexham dressing-room after the final whistle. Reunited with his teammates, Thomas took off his socks, sipped champagne and posed for the cameras before getting dressed and hitting the town. Little did he know that seven months later he would be playing for a prison team.

In the days before £100,000-a-week pay packets, footballers used to be locked up for all sorts of reasons, ranging from running a brothel to importing pornography – and that was just Peter Storey – but surely only a rogue as loveable as Thomas could get caught up in a counterfeit currency scam.

According to Thomas, he was guilty only by association – “Anyone got change for a tenner?” he still jokes – but Judge Gareth Edwards failed to see the funny side of a seasoned professional making a few quid on the side by flogging dodgy tenners to YTS trainees. “You should have been setting apprentices an example,” Edwards said before sentencing Thomas to 18 months. “Instead, because it fitted in with your self-image of a flash and daring adventurer, you betrayed the trust of your employers and you failed in your duty as a distinguished sportsman.”

Thomas shrugged his shoulders and did his time. He was going to beat the system, even if the system locked him up in a tiny cell with a double murderer who had decapitated his victims. “I slept with one eye open,” Thomas said, “but I got on with everyone inside because you had to. Playing football with a team of ‘lifers’ was an experience – every time the ball went over the fence they all wanted to go and get it back.”

Eight days before Thomas was sentenced, he had been in court to see two men sent down for two years for attacking him as he enjoyed a nocturnal tryst in his car with a brunette who happened to be the sister of his former wife. “I’m a free spirit,” Thomas said. “My philosophy is to forget about tomorrow and concentrate on enjoying today.”

Despite the turmoil in his life, Thomas played in the fourth round of the Cup away to West Ham United in February 1992. Wrexham drew 2-2 and Thomas was grinning from ear to ear as he trudged off the pitch at Upton Park. The West Ham supporters were waving £20 notes at him. “We all make mistakes,” Thomas said. “Mine was making my £20 notes an inch too big.”

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