[1][2] Prominent British Asian players have included Frank Soo, Neil Taylor, Zesh Rehman, Jimmy Carter and Michael Chopra.
[3] In 2019, academic Daniel Kilvington suggested a figure of 10 British Asians out of a total of 4,000 professional players in the English game.
[5] The earliest documented British Asian players were the Cother brothers who appeared for Watford in the late 1890s, their father was an Indian man from Mumbai.
Soo became the first ethnic minority player to represent England, albeit in Victory International matches that were not included on full senior records; he went on to have a long coaching career, particularly in Sweden where he won the Allsvenskan with Djurgårdens IF in 1955.
[8] Roger Verdi, of Indian origin, decided to change his name because of racism, and had to move to the United States to start a professional career in 1972.
[17] By February 2008 the number of professionals had dropped to just five, and less than 1 in 100 of young players in Academies throughout the entire English football league system were Asian.
[19] Anwar Uddin, of Bangladeshi origin, was the first British Asian to captain a side in any of the top four divisions of English League football.
[24] On 28 November 2017, Hamza Choudhury made his Premier League debut for Leicester coming on as substitute in the 83rd minute of a home win against Tottenham Hotspur.
[25] In February 2019, Adil Nabi said that he wanted to be an inspiration to other British Asian footballers, in the same way that Cyrille Regis and Laurie Cunningham had done for black players.
[34] Correct as of 2022, Paul Wilson, Ricky Hill and Neil Taylor are the only three British Asian men's footballers to have won full senior international caps for one of the home nations.
Wilson was the first British South Asian to represent any of the home nations when he made his senior international debut for Scotland in his only appearance in 1975.
[54] Launched to recognise the outstanding contribution to both the professional game and grass roots initiatives by individuals and groups across the UK with South Asian heritage, the awards focus on the positive efforts made in the football industry.