A footballer who was recently honoured at the Asian Football Awards believes more needs to be done to help South Asian footballers break into the game.
Mal Benning received the South Asian Pioneer Award after more than 500 senior appearances at clubs including Walsall, Mansfield Town, Port Vale and Shrewsbury Town.
The 33-year-old from West Bromwich is now at AFC Telford United, and said: “Hopefully it proves that it is achievable and barriers can be broken in that stereotype of Asians can’t play football.”
But he believes the sport was still “miles off” seeing proper representation and said that the scouting system too often overlooked South Asian players.
Benning started his career at Walsall, and said his father had been “really the driving force who took me everywhere, up and down the country”.
He said his dad’s mantra was that he had to be “25% better” to get noticed as someone from a Sikh, South Asian background.
He added: “Earlier on in my career, my main focus was to forge a career and get to the highest level possible.”
As well as being proud of the length of his career, he said he was proud to have reached a good standard, playing at League One level for Mansfield and Shrewsbury.
Now, in the latter stages of his career, he said he had a new motivation – to be a role model and mentor for young footballers from South Asian backgrounds.
During his career, Benning said he had only seen a small handful of footballers from similar backgrounds to his own.
He said there were signs barriers were being broken down, with “parents pushing their child into football and other sports where they see talent”.
“Parental support is massive to these young lads coming through”, he added.
Offer of support
Benning believes if the game is to see greater representation for players from South Asian backgrounds, they need to be given a “fairer chance”.
He said: “I think there needs to be a fair opportunity in the scouting system to be honest, and hopefully that can change in the future.”
He explained that he was there to offer advice and support, and encouraged young players and their families to reach out to him, adding that he is “quite passionate now to see more Asians in football”, and feels it is his responsibility “to act as that role model and kind of mentor”.
Benning said he would be very proud to help another young player like himself and to “help that kid make a first team appearance and hopefully forge a career out the game”.
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