Alf Common (25 May 1880 - 3 April 1946 ) was an England inside-right Alf Common who will always be remembered as the first £1,000 transfer when he left Sunderland for Middlesborough in 1905. He was born in Sunderland and signed for his home town team in 1897 as a goalscoring centre forward or outside right. In November 1901, not long after he had broken into the Sunderland first team, he was transferred to Sheffield United for a fee of £325. He played a vital part in Sheffield United's run to the cup final of 1902, in which he scored in the first game and made the pass for the winning goal in the replay. Common returned to Sunderland in 1904 for £520. Within a year he was sold to Middlesborough for amazing sum of £1000. Some members of the Football Association (FA), most notably J. C. Clegg, had long believed that the practice of ‘buying and selling players is unsportsmanlike and most objectionable in itself, and ought not to be entertained by those who desire to see the game played under proper conditions'. The signing of Common was part of a last-ditch strategy to save Middlesbrough from relegation and Common's goals helped to do the trick. In 1910 he moved south to Woolwich Arsenal, this time on a free transfer because Middlesbrough had no money to pay the £250 benefit which he had been promised at the beginning of that season. By then he was probably past his best and was certainly troubled by weight problems. In December 1912 he was transferred to Preston North End and was a member of the team which won the second division championship in 1913.  Common left football in 1914 and returned to the north-east to become a licensee in Darlington.