Even at the tender age of 17, Easah Suliman is already used to all the attention. The Aston Villa central defender has just returned from the Under-17 World Cup in South America having played every minute as England went home with only one point from their three group stage matches.So far, so familiar. But Suliman knows he is being interviewed because he has been nominated for the Young Player award at the Asian Football Awards, which take place at Wembley on Thursday evening.
“It’s not really normal for someone my age to be doing these kind of articles,” Suliman acknowledges. “But I think it’s quite important to show that being Asian is not going to stop me, whereas in the past it might have done. I’m not too sure if that’s true or not. But if I can be a role model to get others involved in football then it’s a real achievement.”
Two years ago the teenager from Moseley in Birmingham became the first player with Pakistani heritage to captain an England team and he signed his first professional contract in January amid reported interest from Bayern Munich and Arsenal. Already well over 6ft, he was an unused substitute in August for Villa’sCapital One cup match against Notts County and was regularly training with the first-team squad until Tim Sherwood’s recent demise.
Along with Liverpool’s Yan Dhanda, a 16-year-old who was signed for around £250,000 from West Bromwich Albion in 2013, Suliman is rated as the next great hope of Britain’s Asian community – estimated to make up more than 5% of England’s population. However, only nine out of 3,000 professional footballers in the top four divisions can claim south Asian heritage and the Football Association’s Asian inclusion in football programme, which launched in May, is hoping to address that imbalance.
“It’s been delayed a few times but the fact they have launched it is a good thing,” says Baljit Rihal, who set up the Asian Football Awards in 2012 but has decided to make an event he runs largely out of his own pocket a biennial affair. “There has been a noticeable increase in terms of young players in academies. Now I think we’re just waiting for that star player.
“It makes it difficult when you have the same faces every year,” he adds. “In an ideal world in order to measure our success we should not have to do the awards.”
Once again, the Swansea City and Wales defender Neil Taylor is expected to battle the Wolverhampton Wanderers captain, Danny Batth, for the main prize, while West Brom’s Adil Nabi, who has been playing for Roberto Carlos on loan at the Indian Super League side Delhi Dynamos, is the other nominee. The night will also recognise the role Asians play at all levels of the game, including coaches, non-league players, grassroots and the Woman in Football award.
Neil Taylor of Swansea is expected to vie with Wolves’ Danny Batth for the main prize at the Asian Football Awards. Photograph: Huw Evans/REX Shutterstock
But almost two decades on from the publication of the Asians Can’t Play Football study by Jas Bains which documented the absence of Asian players in the game, it is the search for a poster boy that still dominates the debate. Recent statistics from the five-a-side football firm Goals Soccer Centres estimated that as much as 20% of its business comes from the community, evidence the stereotypical view that Asians are simply not interested is far from the truth.
“The sport of choice for most Asians, especially from second and third generation families, is football rather than cricket,” says Rihal, who also set up the Asian Cricket Awards last year thanks to funding from the England and Wales Cricket Board.
“Most people just assume that it’s cricket because of their backgrounds. But if the FA are serious about this initiative then they need to be putting money behind it. I don’t think this plan is right up there in term of their priorities but they have realised it’s an issue that needs to be looked at.”
The first of the FA’s Talent ID events took place in Luton and Birmingham last month, with several more planned over the next four years. It has also established weekly sessions in areas with dense Asian populations in the hope of finding the next Suliman.
“I’m not too sure why there are so few Asian players, but now we’re definitely getting a lot more opportunities,” says the Villa defender. “It doesn’t matter what colour you are or what culture you’re from or what background you’re from, you still get the same chances. As long as you work hard and are willing to sacrifice, your chance will come.
“It’s important that players like Yan and I try and get through and build a pathway for other Asians to think that if we’ve made it, then there’s no reason why they can’t as well.”
Suliman has also been on the receiving end of some advice from the England all-rounder Moeen Ali, who hails from the same neighbourhood and is a friend of his father.
“I‘ve spoken to him a bit to see how it’s all going and just get some advice. It helps because there’s not really anyone at the highest level from an Asian background playing football but in cricket obviously there’s a lot more British Pakistanis making it to the top.”
Wisden has estimated that up to 40% of cricketers at grassroots level are from a south Asian background, although that number drops dramatically to just six per cent in the first-class game. Should an Asian player follow in Moeen’s footsteps and play for England’s senior team the next hurdle for football will be to avoid that kind of decline.
For now, though, Suliman will have to get used to being asked what it was like to lead his country out in an international match. “I’ve been reminded of that a few times now,” he laughs. “It’s obviously a great achievement and one I will remember forever. But hopefully if I can keep working hard then one day I can try to get into the senior England team and maybe even captain them. That’s the dream.”
