Thu, Feb 11, 2021 page7

• Aston Villa’s Neil Taylor mentors UK Asian players

  • AP
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  When Neil Taylor watches his son play under-8s matches, the participation challenges become immediately apparent for English soccer.

  “Around Birmingham, I still don’t see enough Asians playing in other youth teams. The higher numbers you have, the more chance you’ve obviously got of creating elite players,” Taylor said.

  Taylor knows that all too well.

  

  Aston Villa’s Neil Taylor, left, clears the ball in front of Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah in their English Premier League match at Anfield in Liverpool, England, on July 5 last year.

  Photo: AFP

  The Aston Villa defender is one of only 15 British players of Asian heritage in English soccer’s four professional leagues, and the Wales international, whose mother was born in India’s West Bengal state, is working to grow the numbers of British Asians making it, like him, into the English Premier League by mentoring the next generation.

  It means making himself available for calls with aspiring players and guiding their parents as part of a Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) mentoring scheme.

  “It’s about helping them and talking through the process and what they might come across — stuff that I never had as a kid,” said Taylor, who grew up in north Wales.

  “I just want to see more people take that jump, enjoy a smile on your face, play football. Don’t be worried about it or have any anxiety,” he said.

  Inevitably, the conversations while mentoring can turn to racism still afflicting the game. Taylor then points out that the atmosphere around clubs is more welcoming and they are willing to shut down prejudice.

  “That bias that you think might be there ... about the physicality of South Asians, I think now people realize that they’re being called out on that. People aren’t turning the other cheek now to stuff like that anymore,” 32-year-old Taylor said.

  Taylor likes to focus on the gradual growth in fellow British Asians making it as pros, with the 15 this season in England already a jump from the eight players making the field last season across the Premier League and English Football League. More than 7 percent of the national population is Asian and Asian British people.

  “That sort of that unconscious bias and prejudice that might be there, I don’t think is going to be there, especially in the years to come,” Taylor said. “I think even now, there’s more participation now than when I probably first started.”

  Taylor also offers tips on the sacrifices that have to be made by youngsters to progress into top-level teams and how to pick the right agent. Preparing children for not making the grade is also important.

  “I prepare them for failure, which is, a lot of the time, unfortunately, inevitable,” he said.

  Taylor was released as a 15-year-old by Manchester City.

  “It’s that massive hit to the system and the letdown, and the expectations you have in the community with your friends of ‘He’s going to be a footballer, he’s going to make it,’ and then suddenly back down to earth,” Taylor said.

  However, Taylor seized another opportunity lower down the ranks at Wrexham AFC before earning a move to Swansea City. With that, he made it into the Wales squad — scoring at Euro 2016 in the run to the semi-finals — and also playing for England at the 2012 Olympics.

  In 2017, Taylor left Swansea, who were then playing in the Premier League, for second-tier Aston Villa, but he helped the central England team return to the top division.

  Playing in the Premier League makes Taylor a rarity as a British Asian, but he does not want to dwell on that. He sees the PFA’s Asian Inclusion Mentoring Scheme as a necessary long-term strategy, compared with previous initiatives.

  “I don’t think over the years necessarily we’ve changed the narrative at all,” Taylor said. “It’s always been about how the boundaries are there, how there’s always too many problems, Asians face a harder route to the top than your average white male, so to speak, and I think it’s just about changing that narrative.”

  The mentoring network of players was established by PFA player inclusion executive Riz Rehman, who played for Brentford. It was his brother, Zesh Rehman, who became the first British Asian to play in the Premier League in 2004 while with Fulham.

  “We’ve got to try and really focus wholly on those young South Asian players who have ability and it’s just about harnessing them and sort of supporting their journey,” Riz Rehman said. “We need to celebrate their achievements to really encourage those kids at the grassroots now.”
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