History of England black players

[Dunny]

England Football OnlineContact UsPage Last Updated 2 March 2012England's Black Players

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66 black players have appeared for England through to the match against the Netherlands on 29 February 2012. The first black player at senior level, Viv Anderson, was the 936th player to appear for England since their first match in 1872. The most recent black player to make his England debut, Fraizer Campbell, was the 1180th player to appear for England. Thus, since the "colour barrier" 33 years ago, in November 1978, roughly one in every four players making an England debut has been black.
It may have been possible to have seen the first black footballer playing for England back in the 1920's with London-born Jack Leslie, a prolific striker for Plymouth Argyle between 1920 & 1935, scoring over 400 goals. Leslie had been informed by his manager Bob Jack that he had been selected to play for England. He later received communication cancelling his call up to the England team stating that they didn't realise he was ‘a man of colour’. Jack Leslie later remarked in 1982 to Brian Woolnough: “They must have forgotten I was a coloured boy.”

A decade later saw the emergence of another great - Hong Y Frank Soo, although born in Buxton, Derbyshire in 1914, he had a Chinese father. If it had not been for the outbreak of war, he would certainly have gained full international honours for England, as he was rated as one of the best inside forwards of the pre-war era. He gained nine wartime and victory caps. - Football fine art

Even before the time of Anderson, now relatively dubbed 'The First Black Player to Play for England', there is another candidate, and maybe if their was not the racism problems that blighted English football throughout the 1960's, then maybe a loud shout would have come from the Leeds United camp. Paul Reaney, allegedly of mixed-race. But without further evidence, other than a few objective photographs.... then if Reaney, why not Alf Ramsey? We are not ruling out Reaney, we just require more evidence.- CG

<FONT face=Arial>Perhaps race will be irrelevant one day, but that time has not yet arrived. While racism remains a problem in English football, these numbers indicate great strides forward have been taken at the level of national team selection. We have not made a count, but we doubt any other European national side, with the possible exception of France, comes close to England in number of black players.

[Dunny]

http://www.englandfootballonline.com...ack/Black.html

[Dunny]

http://www.englandfootballonline.com...ack/Black.html

<FONT face=Arial>Perhaps race will be irrelevant one day, but that time has not yet arrived. While racism remains a problem in English football, these numbers indicate great strides forward have been taken at the level of national team selection. We have not made a count, but we doubt any other European national side, with the possible exception of France, comes close to England in number of black players.

[Gamma]

holland ... maybe

[Paul Marin]

<FONT face=Arial>Perhaps race will be irrelevant one day, but that time has not yet arrived. While racism remains a problem in English football, these numbers indicate great strides forward have been taken at the level of national team selection. We have not made a count, but we doubt any other European national side, with the possible exception of France, comes close to England in number of black players.

It sure as sh*t ain't Spain...that's fer sure! Kind of amazing when you think that Spain had probably the world's biggest colonial footprint.