exhibition
Dream Team

Michael Chopra


In 2005 Jas Bains, chair of the National Asians in Football Forum, wrote in the Guardian that the situation for the Asian community in football had improved. Bains had co-operated in a study in 1996 that was ironically entitled 'Asians can’t play football' and thus ushered in targeted support from the English Football Association and local government projects.

Despite the great enthusiasm in the Asian community for the game they are poorly represented in professional English football. According to Bains the four players with Asian roots in the Premier League in 2005/06 are “role models for others but we seem to be decades away from a time when they have more than a 'novelty value'.” Only 0.8 % of young players at the Premier League football academies at the end of 2004 came from an Asian background.

Striker Michael Chopra, in 2006 a professional at Newcastle United, is one of these role models. His parents, mother English, father Indian, run a small shop in Newcastle. He wrote history in July 1999 when he became only the second player with an Asian background to play at international level for England, Hon Y Soo being the first in the 1940s. He was 15, a Newcastle fan, and crowned his debut appearance for the England under-16 team by scoring the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Argentina at Wembley.