Football's Hidden Talent is a Sky Sports News documentary exploring why there are so few British South Asian professional footballers; watch the documentary on Sky Sports Football at 6pm on May 21st, or Sky Sports Premier League at 8pm on May 21st
Friday 17 May 2024 14:37, UK
"People didn't know if I was Black, white, Asian, Indian, Pakistani. There was a lot of grief, there was a lot of racism. The only thing that saved me was being a footballer.
"The 70s and 80s were rough. I wanted to be white and English. I'm ashamed to admit that."
Those are the words of former Coventry, Norwich City and Nottingham Forest forward, Robert Rosario, who Sky Sports News can reveal was the first British South Asian footballer to play in the Premier League.
"I shied away from my Dad's side [of the family]. As a young football player, I wanted to be accepted and I was scared."
During filming for Football's Hidden Talent, a new Sky Sports News documentary about the lack of British South Asian footballers in football, academic Daniel Kilvington revealed the information which had been passed on by Rosario's cousin, Clayton Rosario.
Rosario's father is Anglo-Indian and was born in Calcutta. He worked at a Heinz factory and was also a cyclist and bodybuilder. But it was because of his German mother that Rosario first got into football, after watching the 1974 World Cup with her.
"We sat there, snuggled up together and watched every World Cup game. I turned to my mum and said 'I'm going to be a professional footballer, mum.' And she never missed a game," he said.
"I'm super proud because I love my dad to death, but when I was playing, when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, it was really difficult," Rosario said when Sky Sports News broke the news to him in an interview. "It was a really difficult time racially.
"Being from a mixed culture, people didn't know if I was Black, white, Asian, Indian, Pakistani. There was a lot of grief, there was a lot of racism. I got it from everyone. The only thing that saved me was being a footballer. When you're a good footballer, people accept you.
"I wish I could go back and embrace it more, and stand up and be brave and say 'I'm half Anglo-Indian, I don't care what you think about me.' But when you're 14, 15, 16, you just want to be accepted and I wasn't mature enough.
"I feel I have an excuse because I was just a young kid who was trying to fit in."
It was previously thought that former Arsenal, Millwall and Liverpool winger Jimmy Carter was the first British South Asian to play in the Premier League, however, Rosario started up front for Coventry City against Middlesborough at Highfield Road on the opening weekend of the first Premier League season on August 15, 1992.
Carter's first Premier League game was three days later, on August 18, when Arsenal faced Blackburn Rovers.
Carter, who was also interviewed as part of Football's Hidden Talent, has a similar story to Rosario's, and only publicly spoke about being British Asian after he retired from playing.
"My journey wasn't easy - you did have that racist element in football. That's probably one of the reasons I didn't feel the need to stand up on a soap box and say my Dad's got Asian heritage," he told Sky Sports News.
"It was hard enough to get back into football. I guess from my point of view, I didn't want to make it even harder for my career from that point on. I think that was a real risk.
"Don't get me wrong, if someone asked me 'where are you from?' I would never ever hide [it] or be ashamed. I was always proud of it."
For more stories, features and videos, visit our ground-breaking South Asians in Football page on skysports.com and stay tuned to Sky Sports News and our Sky Sports digital platforms.
Since the 1992/93 season, other British South Asians that have played in the Premier League include Michael Chopra, who made his debut in 2003 for Newcastle, Fulham's Zesh Rehman in 2004, Neil Taylor, who won promotion to the Premier League with Swansea in 2011 and Leicester's Hamza Choudhury, who made his Premier League debut in 2017.
"It was too difficult a topic. People in football back then didn't want to cause any ripples. People just didn't want to rock the boat," Rosario said.
Rosario made his debut for Norwich City aged 18. "I'm very aware of what people thought about me, that I didn't score enough goals," he added.
While there may not have been 'enough' goals, one was particularly memorable - the wonder strike he scored for Norwich at Carrow Road against Southampton during the 1989/90 season. The then 23-year-old scored from 25 yards to win ITV's goal of the season.
Rosario spent eight years at Norwich, scoring 18 goals in 126 games, after signing from Hillingdon Borough in 1983. In 1991 he joined Coventry for £600,000, scoring eight goals in 59 games.
In 1993, Rosario was sold to Nottm Forest where he would score three goals in 27 games, before injuries took hold and his time playing professional football in England came to an end when he was 30.
"I was just a journeyman-pro," he said. "I played for 14 years in England. I'm so proud of being a former professional."
And, even if he didn't know it at the time, a history-maker, paving the way where too few have so far followed.
Rosario moved stateside and played his last games of football over the four years that followed for Carolina Dynamo and Charleston Battery in the United Soccer League, the US second tier, before retiring.
He still lives in the USA to this day, and has spent the last 26 years coaching on Stateside.
"Coaching for me is way more important. I've worked with thousands of kids. I love my job," he says.
And one of those kids was Rosario's own son, Gabriel, a goalkeeper who moved from North Carolina to England to join Reading's academy in 2016, before signing with Huddersfield Town.
Now, Rosario is a coach and the Senior Boys director at Charlotte Independence soccer club in North Carolina.
Football's Hidden Talent is a Sky Sports News documentary exploring why there are so few British South Asian professional footballers, including interviews with players, coaches, and football's key organisations. Is the landscape truly changing?
Watch 'Football's Hidden Talent' on Sky Sports Football at 6pm on May 21, or Sky Sports Premier League at 8pm on May 21st and on YouTube/On Demand. Read more on the Sky Sports website and app.
Stream Sky Sports live with no contract on a Month or Day membership on NOW. Instant access to live action from the Premier League and EFL, plus darts, cricket, tennis, golf and so much more.
