Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Sports
Home / Sports / Soccer

Frank Soo: England's forgotten footballer

By Angus McNeice | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-06-20 01:13
Share
Share - WeChat
Susan Gardiner, author of The Wanderer: The Story of Frank Soo, labels Soo as “England and China’s forgotten footballer”. Photo provided to China Daily

Soo was born in Derbyshire in 1914 to Chinese immigrant Quan Soo and his English wife Beatrice, who both worked in a launderette. He showed promise as a player while in school and joined Stoke City at the age of 18.

Gardiner says Soo became a household name in England during the 1930s and 40s - his wedding photos made the front page of the Daily Mirror, and Stoke fans regarded him as a working-class hero. He played for the team 173 times, before stints at Leicester City, Luton Town and Chelmsford City.

Alan Lau, who plays for the London Chinese Community Centre Football Club and established a foundation in Soo’s name, says the player is an inspiration to him and his teammates.

“We want to promote his legacy,” Lau said. “His story is not well-known in the wider footballing fraternity. As someone growing up in the UK of Chinese background, to have someone like this as a role model is important. He got to the top of the game and overcame so many barriers.”

Soo played in both midfield and defense and was lauded for his ball control and accurate passing. In his column for a national paper, Dixie Dean - one of English soccer’s most prolific goal-scorers - identified Soo as one of the country’s greatest talents.

Following his playing career, Soo left England to work as a manager in Sweden, Italy, and for the Norwegian national team, and mentions of him in British media soon dried up. He died in 1991 at age 76.

“Soo gets overlooked because his caps came during the war, and because he’s playing in an era when the dynamics around race relations were very different,” said Martin Johnes, a sport historian at Swansea University.

“When Viv Anderson appears for England it’s at a time when race is a political issue, it followed 20 years of large scale immigration,” he added. “Soo is playing at a time when there were probably less than 50,000 people of color living in the UK - race simply wasn’t a political issue in the same way.”

Soo himself said that his ethnicity held him back from reaching his full potential. He told the Evening Sentinel in 1945 that he thought he “would have had many more [England appearances] but for his Oriental blood”.

|<< Previous 1 2   

Most Popular

Highlights

What's Hot
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 亚洲伊人tv综合网色| 国产在线视频一区二区三区| 久久久久国产一区二区三区| 欧美高清在线精品一区| 国产一在线精品一区在线观看 | 日日噜噜噜夜夜爽爽狠狠视频| 亚洲成人动漫在线观看| 精品国产乱码久久久久久1区2区| 国产成人亚洲综合色影视| 97国产精品视频观看一| 性欧美videos喷水| 久久精品99久久香蕉国产色戒| 欧美日韩在线视频| 免费在线观看a| 这里是九九伊人| 国产精品亚洲а∨天堂2021| www.日韩av.com| 无码精品A∨在线观看十八禁 | 亚洲国产成人久久综合区| 痴汉电车中文字幕| 国产中文字幕在线| 免费在线视频你懂的| 国内精品久久久久久影院| 一本久久综合亚洲鲁鲁五月天| 日本在线高清版卡免v| 亚洲一区二区三区无码中文字幕| 激情内射亚洲一区二区三区爱妻| 另类欧美视频二区| 香港台湾日本三级纶理在线视| 国产精品入口在线看麻豆| 99在线观看国产| 小兔子救了蛇被蛇两根进去| 久久91亚洲精品中文字幕| 日韩高清不卡在线| 亚洲国产精品无码久久一区二区| 男人j桶进女人p| 午夜在线观看视频免费成人 | 亚洲成a人片在线不卡一二三区| 猛男猛女嘿咻视频网站| 午夜福利啪啪片| 色费女人18毛片a级毛片视频|