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Why are there so few British Asian footballers?

Posted by CrocodileJock@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 11 comments

I can only think of a handful – it’s 2023 for goodness sake…

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11 Comments

Necessary_Figure_817@reddit

If you are a first generation Asian, you go home and tell your parents you want to be a footballer, I'm sure that would be beaten out of you quite quickly with a copy of a medical/law/accounting textbook. Second generation Asian, you're parents are now either doctors, lawyers or accountants, children of these professions don't become footballers.
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Comfortable-Table-57@reddit

Even Accountancy is not as valued as Maths 
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Comfortable-Table-57@reddit

It is due to the backgrounds. In collectivist Asian norms, they often value higher rate paid jobs and careers rather than passionate ones. But who cares if there is so little? 
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ticaf95085@reddit

Football isn’t as popular as a youth sport in those communities.
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National-Emu5687@reddit

U clearly are from a white area to be sayint that 
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Exotic_Lime4983@reddit

Why are there so few British Asian sportsmen barring Cricket?
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wait_whut_@reddit

The idea that football isn't popular with young Asian lads is actually a misconception based on information that is 40 odd years out of date. It's actually more popular with young British Bangladeshi boys than White British boys, about the same with British Pakistani boys, and only slightly less popular with British Indian boys. A lot of it seems to be based on perception. Because we are used to seeing white and black players in the game, early stage coaches are more likely to have an idea of what kind of player to mould them into, and so they can begin getting tailored coaching more quickly and are more likely to be recommended to scouts. The FA are looking into it, not in terms of "diversity hires" or trying to inorganically push Asian lads to play football, but to make sure that those who have the ability aren't falling through the cracks. Whether they actually follow through with it is another matter, because... well, it's the FA.
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ravs1973@reddit

There could be an issue that a lot of the kids who are talented are being encouraged away from the sport by their parents as they want them to concentrate on their studies or on other sports they regard as superior such as cricket however if that's the case it will slowly change over the generations as those kids gave kids of their own.
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cuccir@reddit

There is definitely a parental/family factor as to what is considered an acceptable route to follow. And also a perception among coaches, teachers as to what a good footballer looks like. It's a mixture of the two.
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kimsabok@reddit

those are all peripheral issues. fundamentally its to do with lack of ability. football isnt just technical or mental. there is a huge physical component to it. if you played with south asians, and non south asians, and challenged them for a 50/50, a duel, an arial ball etc, you would know why there are so little professional south asians in england.
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kimsabok@reddit

if you played a lot of football with south asians and non-south asians you would know. its to do with physical attributes. in short, the avg. south asian kid is a lot slower, less explosive, and perhaps most importantly, less powerful than a non-south asian. this means that south asian kids come off 2nd best too often in arial challenges, duels, dribbled past etc. and its also why if you go to watch kids football, the south asian kid may be one of the technically better kids - hes playing at the level he is because his technical superiority makes up for his physical deficiencies. and this often mistakenly interpretted as the south asian kid being better than some of his teammates - when in fact, hes only technically better, not overall.
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