Why British Asians don't make it pro

[Foxbatt]

So Asians are now only the people from the Indian subcontinent?
Many Asians play football and countries like Philippines are improving a lot and even has a keeper playing for Cardiff City.
Foreign born players from Asia find it hard to get visas or work permit because of the ranking of their countries by FIFA.
There are still a fair amount of Asian players in the UK. I think Son of Spurs would be the most prominent?

 

[utdalltheway]

OP mentions British Asians. Son is Korean.
Also, Asian in Britain typically refers to people from the Indian subcontinent, as opposed to SE Asia, China/Japan/Korea.
Or Iran, Iraq, etc..

 

[Rhyme Animal]

OP mentions British Asians. Son is Korean.
Also, Asian in Britain typically refers to people from the Indian subcontinent, as opposed to SE Asia, China/Japan/Korea.
Or Iran, Iraq, etc..

Does it...? Not sure about that.

 

[utdalltheway]

Cricket playing Chinese, Japanese, Koreans....
Not sure about that.
Seriously though the video is an interesting watch. I’d say over time you’ll see a lot more than we have, for a lot of the reasons already stated.

 

[Mr.Ridiculous__]

Asian kids tend to be less able to develop muscle in their early to mid teens. That's the age at which it's decided whether you can make the cut.

This. The physical peak of Asian guys (I am talking South Asia) come later than Europeans. It's a big Jesse Lingard type problem where you aren't physically developed enough to compete.

 

[Zlatattack]

Does it...? Not sure about that.

It probably shouldn't anymore, but definitely did in the 60's, 70's, 80's etc. There are definitely more Asian people in Britain now who aren't from South Asia.

 

[Ballache]

Does it...? Not sure about that.

It does, I remember telling people I'm Asian and them answering "Nah, you're Lebanese innit"

 

[Aboutreika18]

So Asians are now only the people from the Indian subcontinent?
Many Asians play football and countries like Philippines are improving a lot and even has a keeper playing for Cardiff City.
Foreign born players from Asia find it hard to get visas or work permit because of the ranking of their countries by FIFA.
There are still a fair amount of Asian players in the UK. I think Son of Spurs would be the most prominent?

The term "Asians" in the UK usually refers to South Asians, or at least it did while I was growing up.

British Asians was mostly used to refer to 2nd or 3rd generation Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis etc.

Always amuses me how tied up the non-Brits get in this terminology. I remember Americans on reddit getting angry at a potential terrorist being labelled as Asian on BBC, before someone explained the usage.

 

[Dante]

British Malaysian and British Thai kids don't make it pro either, if you want to get weirdly political about it.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Does it...? Not sure about that.

Yeah it does for lots of people.

Asian = South Asian
West Asian = Middle Eastern
East Asian = East Asian.

Alternatively, in South Africa, Asian = East Asian.

 

[Rhyme Animal]

For me I literally think of Asian as...well, Asian.

Bit like how I view Polish, Italian, French, English (myself) as European.

I can defo understand the West Asian = Middle East one as 'Middle East' is a phrase used so much in news etc.

 

[Beaucoup]

This. The physical peak of Asian guys (I am talking South Asia) come later than Europeans. It's a big Jesse Lingard type problem where you aren't physically developed enough to compete.

Don't think this is the case, there simply aren't many Asian kids in academy teams from 9 upwards, which sort of suggests there aren't many playing grass roots football.

 

[Thunderhead]

Don't think this is the case, there simply aren't many Asian kids in academy teams from 9 upwards, which sort of suggests there aren't many playing grass roots football.

I think the bolded part nails it, in the North East where my lad plays at u8 level I think I've seen one Asian lad and the team they were playing has 4 teams and is from a big Asian area of the city, I'd imagine it's the same around the country.

 

[anant]

Thought this belonged here:

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[Foxbatt]

Isn't the Cardiff City keeper an Asian too? From the Philippines? I think it is rare for the Asians to make it good in football apart from the Koreans and the Japanese. Even the Chinese have not made it to the good ranks of the players. Individually they can be as skillful or even more than some pro European players but put them in team and they seem to mess it up. Could it be the lack of coaching at a younger age?
What really surprises me is the lack of any Chinese players at any good European league given the number of people they have and the amount of money they spend on football.

 

[CherryBoy]

If there were more South Asians in the professional game, they would get way more respect (seen as more technical, intelligent) than Afro-Carribean/African players.

This is obviously for stereotypical reasons.

 

[LInkash]

Does it...? Not sure about that.

There seems to be a gradual shift towards Asian meaning East Asian in the UK but officially Asian still means South Asian, i.e. in forms, the media, etc.

Oriental used to be used for East Asian but that seems to have been phased out. Not sure how and when it went away, possible influenced by it being offensive in the States.

 

[duffer]

How many games did Yan Dhanda play for Liverpool?

 

[Shaidabdullah Hussain]

Speaking for Punjabis, it’s hard to head a ball with a turban.

Source: I’ve tried.

 

[van der star]

Speaking for Punjabis, it’s hard to head a ball with a turban.

Source: I’ve tried.

Not all Punjabis wear turbans, though. Isn't Michael Chopra Punjabi?

 

[Shaidabdullah Hussain]

Not all Punjabis wear turbans, though. Isn't Michael Chopra Punjabi?

No idea, all I know about that guy is he had rehab for a gambling addiction.

 

[RussellWilson]

I hope to see one at the top level in my lifetime.

 

[André Dominguez]

Speaking for Punjabis, it’s hard to head a ball with a turban.

Source: I’ve tried.

Also, football is far from being in top of interest list for most of Punjab people. Here in Portugal we have a large Punjab community and they pretty much organize public big screen events to watch cricket.

 

[Shaidabdullah Hussain]

Also, football is far from being in top of interest list for most of Punjab people. Here in Portugal we have a large Punjab community and they pretty much organize public big screen events to watch cricket.

This is a massive thing in England too. I think this translates into the sports they actually train in too, with many from my home community at least being pushed into other sports, Cricket being the main one. There are
so many British Asians in the Cricket team its no surprise the younger generation look to emulate them and go into those sports.

I think once we see a star British Asian football player, one who maybe even gets into the national team, then we will see a rise in professional participation of British Asians in football. Just need one big one to make it IMO

 

[André Dominguez]

This is a massive thing in England too. I think this translates into the sports they actually train in too, with many from my home community at least being pushed into other sports, Cricket being the main one. There are
so many British Asians in the Cricket team its no surprise the younger generation look to emulate them and go into those sports.

I think once we see a star British Asian football player, one who maybe even gets into the national team, then we will see a rise in professional participation of British Asians in football. Just need one big one to make it IMO

I think the part of the star player might be the key, because nowadays as you said and well they aspire to be cricket superstars, mainly because that's the top of the crop of India's national sports. One just need to look at Bollywood movies (yeah, I've watched a fair share of them ) to realize how big cricket is in that part of the planet.

 

[Chipper]

Choudhury at Leicester looks like he could be a decent player. His mum is Bangladeshi, and his dad is too ethnically but of Grenadian descent.

There seems to be a gradual shift towards Asian meaning East Asian in the UK but officially Asian still means South Asian, i.e. in forms, the media, etc.

Yes, not a nice topic to talk about, but some of those grooming gangs that we've seen in the news in recent years have been described as Asian in the media. That's led to some asking why background/ethnicity needs to mentioned to all, to others making jokes like "Damn South Koreans" in news comment sections etc., and I've seen one person of Chinese descent say on another forum that they don't like that term being used in that context because they're Asian too.

 

[Stacks]

Isn't the Cardiff City keeper an Asian too? From the Philippines? I think it is rare for the Asians to make it good in football apart from the Koreans and the Japanese. Even the Chinese have not made it to the good ranks of the players. Individually they can be as skillful or even more than some pro European players but put them in team and they seem to mess it up. Could it be the lack of coaching at a younger age?
What really surprises me is the lack of any Chinese players at any good European league given the number of people they have and the amount of money they spend on football.

If poor players are surrounded by poor players, it's hard to raise your level. The premier league went down in standard when we were away from Europe so I think your competition has a little to do with it. There are over a billion people in Africa and football is number one but African teams are not heavyweights

This is a massive thing in England too. I think this translates into the sports they actually train in too, with many from my home community at least being pushed into other sports, Cricket being the main one. There are
so many British Asians in the Cricket team its no surprise the younger generation look to emulate them and go into those sports.

I think once we see a star British Asian football player, one who maybe even gets into the national team, then we will see a rise in professional participation of British Asians in football. Just need one big one to make it IMO

The Amir Khan effect

 

[ariveded]

Asians generally value education more, and will pursue a career afterwards a college degree. Culture, family all favor career based on attaining good education.

 

[Stacks]

Asians generally value education more, and will pursue a career afterwards a college degree. Culture, family all favor career based on attaining good education.

Asian is a wide range of different cultures though. Are we talking Bengali, Pakistani, Tamil, Hindi?

 

[redMundo]

Went to school with a lot of Asian lads and a few were just as talented and physically strong as some of us.

From my experience it seemed football was just a recreational activity in their spare time rather than living and breathing it like me.

Instead of going to training or having a kick about with their mates after school they’d be off to Mosque or cricket practice.

Many of the lads would have academic revision or religious activities taking up their lunch breaks while we would be playing football too.

 

[Stacks]

Went to school with a lot of Asian lads and a few were just as talented and physically strong as some of us.

From my experience it seemed football was just a recreational activity in their spare time rather than living and breathing it like me.

Instead of going to training or having a kick about with their mates after school they’d be off to Mosque or cricket practice.

Many of the lads would have academic revision or religious activities taking up their lunch breaks while we would be playing football too.

the strange thing is I went to school with a lot of Tamil's and Turks who have their own leagues as opposed to playing the Sunday league with the white and black players from the area. We could make this thread about Turkish as there are an estimated 500K British Turks but few in the national set up and they are a footballing nation. Maybe scouts didn't watch the separate leagues

 

[Peter van der Gea]

Speaking for Punjabis, it’s hard to head a ball with a turban.

Source: I’ve tried.

Are you sure you're Sikh? Your username suggests not.

Anyway, the turban is not part of the religion, the long hair is, so you can wear your hair in a ponytail

 

[Peter van der Gea]

the strange thing is I went to school with a lot of Tamil's and Turks who have their own leagues as opposed to playing the Sunday league with the white and black players from the area. We could make this thread about Turkish as there are an estimated 500K British Turks but few in the national set up and they are a footballing nation. Maybe scouts didn't watch the separate leagues

If you love football, you don't want it ruined by being racially abused. I'm a goalie and I switched from football to hockey at 14 because of the amount of abuse I was getting from my own coach.

 

[Pav1878]

Are you sure you're Sikh? Your username suggests not.

Anyway, the turban is not part of the religion, the long hair is, so you can wear your hair in a ponytail

The turban is part of the religion and Sikhs aren't meant to wear their hair out. Many do as it is more convenient for them during sports for example, but it should always be covered.

Now having played a lot of football at school, district and Sunday league levels I can safely say there are some fantastic Punjabi Sikh footballers in the UK who could absolutely break through. There are a number of factors why it hasn't happened regularly.

Interestingly though, I read a Sikh lad has just joined Bayern Munich from the NZ system?

 

[Zlatattack]

Speaking for Punjabis, it’s hard to head a ball with a turban.

Source: I’ve tried.

Who needs football when you have kabbadi.

 

[Peter van der Gea]

The turban is part of the religion and Sikhs aren't meant to wear their hair out. Many do as it is more convenient for them during sports for example, but it should always be covered.

Now having played a lot of football at school, district and Sunday league levels I can safely say there are some fantastic Punjabi Sikh footballers in the UK who could absolutely break through. There are a number of factors why it hasn't happened regularly.

Interestingly though, I read a Sikh lad has just joined Bayern Munich from the NZ system?

I'm sorry mate, but you're wrong, and thaI'm sayingt as somreone who wrote a turban til 22, parents and brother-in-law are Gursikh and whose played tabala for kirtan in gurdwaras in the UK, the USA and in Punjab.

Kesh is one of the 5 K's, but wearing the turban came about as a FU to the Mugal emporers who said only kings could wear a turban.

 

[King7Eric]

Asian is a wide range of different cultures though. Are we talking Bengali, Pakistani, Tamil, Hindi?

Hindi is a language mate. And if you mean Hindu then Bengalis and Tamils are both Hindus. Also, I don't think Pakistani is any culture, Pakistan comprises of many cultural groups like Punjabis, Pashtuns, Sindhis etc.

 

[ThatsGreat]

Forget Britain, even in India no one from well-to-do families opt for sports. And while the west values excellence in sports, our culture values excellence in academia as high as whatever we do in sports. In my school the toppers were regarded as cool as the sports jocks. While they'll probably be derided as nerds in the west.

 

[Litch]

Simple numbers game. Forget the 60's and 70's generational stereotypical view about education being more important etc, the issues pertaining to those cultures and applicable to their white counterparts as we are talking now about British born Asian parents. There remains a disproportionate numbers playing football so the pool of players to choose from is small. We have to remember less than 1% of people who play football actually end up being paid to do it. Also we have had a children from dual heritage parents that chose to not define themselves as Asian. If you applied the same to even the Utd players, Wes Brown, Rio, Lingard, Greenwood etc could define themselves as not Black and the numbers would reflect differently here also. It's not always how society defines you, it's how you choose to define yourself....

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

I really don't understand all this talk about physicality or athletism, football isn't a sport where you need to be the biggest or the most athletic to be the best, we're not talking about the NBA or the NFL where you first need to be an amazing athlete and then your skill comes 2nd.

It must be something to do with the English scouting system, I don't believe for an instant that all British Asians kids prefer Cricket to Football, in fact I'd be surprised if the majority wasn't more into football, It's the biggest sport in England and growing up there I find it more likely that they'd be interested in it rather than Cricket (also football is more accessible and far easier to play as a kid with your friends)

There's not a single one of them in the PL right? That's actually shocking.

Disagree with religion being brought up though, just look at French academies.