So many Indians in the UK... none on the football field?

London: There are an estimated 2.5 million South Asians living in the United Kingdom as per their latest population census. Out of those, just more than a million people are Indians.

And yet, not one of them plays professional football at a noticeable level.

In a country,  where football enjoys national following at all levels, the fact that no Indian plays at a professional level is quite a shocker.  It’s a mystery which no one has an answer to. It appears even more bizarre when you see so many Indian people cheering on their teams in all the leagues in the UK, which include the first four-tiers of the sport.

The question every Indian football fan asks himself is — when will we see an Indian player play for a known team in Europe? Or even England?

Firstpost spoke about this lack of Indian presence in UK’s football scene to Steve Adams, the Head Coach at the Centre of Excellence in the Sheffield and Hallamshire FA. Adams,  a journeyman pro decided to go early into a coaching career and is well known in the country for encouraging and training young talent.

After a long coaching-career at Sheffield Wednesday and with stints in Australia, Adams now operates on his own, teaching football to young kids in schools across the UK. His experience of seeing children take on the game at a very tender age gives him an unusual perspective.

“A few years ago, I was with a task force set up with David Mellor, a minister, Uriah Rennie the referee and David Davies from the FA for this issue but we did not make any headway. For some reason, Indian players are just not coming through the system in a way the rest of the players are. We cannot simply pick an 18 year-old Indian and put him in the first team. He simply needs to come through the system.”

But the major problem seems to be that of a cultural context. Just like a lot of Indian students who come to study in the country hang out with fellow Indians most of the time, Adams believes that those who live in the UK are doing the same.

“I was having a discussion with senior Asian members in Yorkshire and what I observed was that they set up their own leagues and play within their own communities. We don’t want that! We want them playing with everybody!”

Filming by Arya Yuyutsu

Rakesh Champaneri, who has been playing in leagues in Leicester since a very young age echoes what Adams has to say. “I have noticed that there is no scouting network at all when it comes to community tournaments. It seems all the scouts attend Sunday league games.”

Champaneri also thinks communication plays a major role: “This trend of playing within your own community should change, but there needs to be more communication. We need to know which tournaments will be scouted by football clubs. This surely gives more incentive to youngsters”, says the left-footed winger whose football accolades adorn the walls at his home.

But Zarif Rasul, who is a well-known football journalist in England and has also played a lot of football in his early days, does not believe this should be a hindrance. “This shouldn’t really affect whether or not players get ’noticed’ — if a player is performing well for their school, or their club, they should in theory be as likely to attract the attention of scouts as non-South Asian young footballers.”

The people we are talking about are not regular Indians or South Asians who have just come over for a year or two, but are those who hold British passports and have rights to become a professional in the sport.

“These are second or third generation players I’m talking about. That means they could play for England and benefit the country” says Adams.

Whenever Indian sport is raised as a discussion, there is only one area where the country has made major headway, and that is, of course, cricket.  In India, the amount of exposure cricket gets and thanks to the kind of money involved, it’s not surprise that cricket has overshadowed football. But in England, where all sports get equal attention the trend is baffling. The ex-forward, Adams, too feels the same about the lack of South Asians in football.

“I know whenever you think of Indian sportsmen, it is more in terms of cricket or hockey, but after living in a modern western culture, being born and bred over here, why not football?”

He goes on to confirm that some of the sessions he takes while coaching at school are predominantly of Asian or Indian origin, but the numbers just thin out when it comes to continuing through the academy system. “It really is a mystery as to why they seem to vanish at a certain point. But it is time that the FA or the powers that be work full time to get the problem sorted.”

Rasul, who was born in Britain but has Bangladeshi roots, also mentions one particular problem a lot of readers in India will agree to, “Many people crudely assume that South Asian families aren’t traditionally very supportive of the idea of careers in sport — stereotypically, many young South Asians are more likely to be encouraged to pursue a career in law or medicine. Some have also suggested that biologically South Asians aren’t as strong as non-South Asians, but I believe that this is probably more of a myth.”

And Steve Adams couldn’t agree more: “Look at Barcelona. Most of the players are shorter than me! In fact them being lean and agile makes it perfect for them to play the game.”