There, that surprised you, didn't it? She's all about the clothes and the shoes, you thought.
Why are there no Asian footballers?
I asked K, our PE co-ordinator, who is brilliant and gets the little inner-city kids fencing and learning judo and cricket and rugby (famous rugby player visited us, the male and female teachers were goggling in awe for widely different reasons) and competing in stuff all over East London, in the face of extreme parental indifference to any sport or exercise. Thank god for him.
He was talking about one of our kids with natural talent, who pretty much was a one man team in a game against another school with players in the West Ham junior club... Why don't our kids play for the junior clubs, I ask? How do scouts spot them? They don't come to the schools to talent spot, he said, they will go to tournaments... but this kid is pretty much too old now, they start between 6 and 9 and he's past it at 11. And the parents don't know or don't care about the junior clubs.
I'm spitting feathers. 'So the clubs don't go out there... and the parents aren't interested... And all these kids' talents and skills are going to waste... Why doesn't the FA do something about it? Some positive discrimination?'
'It's a cultural thing' chips in someone. They don't want them to be footballers. They're not interested... in the 70s all the black kids wanted to be footballers, because they saw the few black players out there and said 'I'm going to be like him...' They don't think they can do it, because they don't see it. If the parents could see someone succeeding, it might make them consider it for their children.
It's a vicious circle isn't it? K said things were getting better. But think of this... they've been in the UK since the 70s. That's 40 odd years of wasted talent. It's a tragedy.