I think its because genetically Asians are inferior at proper sport be it football rugby athletics or boxing.

comment by Latvian Phil (U2440)
posted 48 minutes ago
I think its because genetically Asians are inferior at proper sport be it football rugby athletics or boxing.
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Boxing?

Amir Khan, Prince Naseem..

I'm a British born Asian and yeah there is a push towards things such as becoming a Doctor, Lawyer or engineer.

I just think some are not technically as skilled or as good tbh. It's like how you don't see many black people in an Olympic Swimming finals or many White people in an Olympic 100M final and so on.

Sport is generally seen as a hobby in Asian culture and not seen as a 'job' or something you can earn a living off.

However I do feel there may be a younger generation of Asian footballers coming soon and hopefully they will be technically and physically good enough.

Oh and Michael Chopra and Neil Taylor (Swansea LB) are both half Indian

I forgot about Chopra but didn't know about Neil Taylor.

I am sure there are others...I remember there was a player at huddlesfield called Adnan something. Maybe Adnan Ahmed. Whatever happened to him?

Adnan Ahmed was even at United academy as kid. Fell off it seems.

the Indian national team are awful though

Worst team on Fifa... my friend is fuming that they have India and not Wales.

I didn't know that. Would have been great if it did have the talent and made it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asians_in_association_football
A list of them here. Interestingly Neil Taylor is joined by Rhys Williams of M'boro. I had no idea his mum was Indian.

It does seem those of mist parentage seem to have fared better than those that aren't.

Toplad, you said "I just think some are not technically as skilled or as good tbh." - to be honest, I don't think thats the case. I have seen some guys who are very good at a young age but never had any training and pretty much played for fun. You'll find these guys playing on the estatse with a ball and coats for goal posts rather than parks or at clubs. I think if there was a push to get these guys into clubs and have teams scout them out, meet their parents and kinda show how they can train and study at the same time it might help push more asians into football.

It does seem those of mist parentage seem to have fared better than those that aren't.

Toplad, you said "I just think some are not technically as skilled or as good tbh." - to be honest, I don't think thats the case. I have seen some guys who are very good at a young age but never had any training and pretty much played for fun. You'll find these guys playing on the estatse with a ball and coats for goal posts rather than parks or at clubs. I think if there was a push to get these guys into clubs and have teams scout them out, meet their parents and kinda show how they can train and study at the same time it might help push more asians into football.
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I agree with the fact there are some good Asian footballers who are at a decent level. Maybe if some coaching they could be improved on even more but who knows, maybe they can't. Playing professionally is a huge step up imo.

There has to be a reason though. I'm sure many clubs have tried to bring in more Asian players, and they just haven't been able to make it. Chelsea had a scheme where they were trying to bring young Asian players and not many succeeded. There has to be a reason and it may be physical or technical as I can't think of anything else.

How many actually turned out for them though?

Was it a large number or a small one?
And how was it assessed?

Interesting article and I believe a significant factor ate parents.

I'm English, mum's Italian and I had try outs with Oldham and made the cut, same as my older brother before me but my parents considered football a hobby, not a job and considered an education more important and basically it got to a stage where i couldn't do both. My dad's an Engineer and a PhD holder and my mum's a medical doctor and as far as they were concerned, football was for ruffians and the uneducated.

so we were encouraged to get degrees and proper jobs instead and it's something a lot of Asian parents, African parents and snobby English parents like my dad did

Same reason why David Gills son left to go to Uni.

Al habsi ?

its ironic people saying that Asian culture thinks they are too good to be scrubby football players don't you think?
What would the Asian cultures be if they didn't leave their own countries? Anyway that's another matter.

Greg - overflowing with doctors and not enough patients!

Asians are better at other sports like cricket and boxing. For example Adil Rashid and Amir Khan

Al Habsi may be Asian (Middle-Eastern), but he isn't British.

I know I didn't mention it in the article but it is about British-Asians rather than other Asians (otherwise you could include Park Ji-Sung, Kagawa and a host of other Asian players that were bought in).

overflowing with doctors and not enough patients!

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If there was ever a country that needed more doctors, due to the mass of poor patients, then it's India.

If there was ever a country that needed more doctors, due to the mass of poor patients, then it's India.
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yeh thats what i thought

Hey Greg, did I ever tell you the story about my mom...

El-Abd, Brighton CB, is Egyptian. Not from Asia, but from a similar culture.

One could also ask why China are so poor at football despite having a population of 1 billion. Of course, big population doesn't = to great international football team - but you'd expect China to be a lot better than they are.

Also, every year Chelsea hold a competition to find the,'Young Asian footballer of the year', for kids 8-14/15, but nothing rarely comes out of it, more of a publicity stunt. The winner then gets a trial with the actual academy I think, rarely gets in.

Chelsea have also had some South Asian players in the academy. James and Phil Younghusband were English but played for Phillipines I think. They are rubbish, now at some random team around the globe. Neil Etheridge was also Filipino, and jumped across to Fulham,

comment by ManUtdDaredevil (U9612)
posted 2 hours, 58 minutes ago
Interesting article and I believe a significant factor ate parents.

I'm English, mum's Italian and I had try outs with Oldham and made the cut, same as my older brother before me but my parents considered football a hobby, not a job and considered an education more important and basically it got to a stage where i couldn't do both. My dad's an Engineer and a PhD holder and my mum's a medical doctor and as far as they were concerned, football was for ruffians and the uneducated.

so we were encouraged to get degrees and proper jobs instead and it's something a lot of Asian parents, African parents and snobby English parents like my dad did

Same reason why David Gills son left to go to Uni.

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I pretty much agree with the above gentleman.

I also think a little has to do with genetic advantages as espoused by some here.

Lastly - and perhaps more controversially - a little has to due with racial stereotyping.

I think its because genetically Asians are inferior at proper sport be it football rugby athletics or boxing.
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Boxing?

Amir Khan, Prince Naseem..

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thats only two people though toplad out of how many decent boxers out there.

when you look at some sports like hockey, badminton and cricket, something that asians normally succeed out, maybe they just dont klike the physical aspect of sport.

Toplad, you're asian? I did not know that! Learn something new here every day.

As for why we don't make it in football, a big part is due to our life-styles. We are discouraged from pretty much everything that won't help us academically. There is a huge percentage of asians, that don't know how to play an instrument, know how to swim, allowed to pursue extra curriculum activities etc and we are expected to knuckle down into our books. Sadly, if that doesn't work out for us, we end up with dead-end jobs, and for some getting on the wrong side of the law. It's just in our culture. I've had the 'white' life-style since an early age, and when I see some of my friends and what they pursued as children, it makes me wonder what I did with my time.

I only know one footballer who made it from where I am from, gifted in football and cricket, and was signed up by Leicester City. However, when the money came in he decided it's time to invest in drugs and wrecked his own career.

I don't think it's because we are genetically inferior at all, even though I know you don't mean that as an insult.

thats only two people though toplad out of how many decent boxers out there.

when you look at some sports like hockey, badminton and cricket, something that asians normally succeed out, maybe they just dont klike the physical aspect of sport.
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Dunc, I think it's more the fact not many Asian boys would turn to boxing, rather than them being inferior at sports such as boxing.

Hockey, Cricket and badminton are the main three sports in India.

It's hard to come up with a reason or conclusion though. It could be genetic or lack of physicality and so on. Or it could be a mix of several factors. But I do believe there will be a British Asian playing top tier football soon.

Darkphoenix, you're Asian too?
Didn't know that either. What country you from?

I agree with your post though, it's just the way we were brought up. Sport was a hobby and it was never really an option to go into as a job or profession, unless you were extremely talented of course.