Tuesday, July 14, 2020

PIO /Indian disapora All-Time Team

This blogger Artur Yanturin of Russia copied many of my blog teams.  This blog was one of them.  It was my Russia All-Time Team here.  His team was written in 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2014.   His Spartak Moscow All-Time team entry of was published in October 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2017.  His entry of the Dutch-German rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona was written in 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2014.  He also copied many many of my blog entries.

His Facebook and Instagram

Aron Winter

Please also see my All-Time World Cup Team Index.

AustraliaSaudi ArabiaIran,
ChinaJapanSouth Korea.
Hong Kong
East AsiaWest Asia(without Iran and Saudi Arabia),
Central AsiaSouth East Asia(ASEAN).
India

This blog team is about the Indian Diaspora.  Overseas Indians, officially known as Non-Resident Indians (NRI/NRIs) or Persons of Indian Origin (PIO/PIOs), are people of Indian birth, descent or origin who live outside the Republic of India. According to a Ministry of External Affairs report, there are 28 million NRIs and PIOs residing outside India.  According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, India remains the largest country of origin for expatriates and immigrant communities with a 17.5 million-strong diaspora across the world.

The largest number of PIOs in the world is located in Saudi Arabia.  They are followed by the United States, United Arab Empires, Malaysia, Myranmar, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the United Kingdom. 
Jimmy Carter
Team  
GK: Kevin Keelan (Great Britain)
Keelan was known for his career with Norwich City between 1963 and 1980. He was twice City Player of the Year and played for the City side which lost the 1973 League Cup Final to Tottenham Hotspur.  He also played for New England Tea Men of the North American Soccer League for the summer season. He was named in the 1978 NASL All-Star Team.  He also played for Aston Villa, Stockport County, Wrexham, etc.

GK: Greg Ranjitsingh (Trinidad and Tobago)
Born in Canada, Ranjitsingh spent four years with Mercer University before joining Louisville City in March 2015.  In MLS, he played for Orlando City and Minnesota United.  Born to a Trinidadian father and Guyanese-Portuguese mother, Ranjitsingh declared his interest in representing Trinidad and Tobago nationally due to his upbringing.  He was capped once at the time of writing.

GK: R. Arumugam (Malaysia)
His long arms and difficult saves earned him the nickname "Spiderman".  He made his debut for Selangor FA when he was 18 years old in 1971. He represented Selangor FA in the Malaysia Cup tournament from 1972 to 1988, a period during which Selangor FA won the Malaysia Cup eight times.   R. Arumugam recorded 196 caps (not all A class international matches) during his time with the Malaysia national team. 

RB: Roger Verdi (Kenya/England) 
Born in Kenya to Indian Sikh parents, Roger Verdi spent his youth career with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Ipswich Town, but his professional career was played in North America.  In the United States, Verdi played in the NASL between 1972 and 1978 for the Montreal Olympique, Miami Toros, St. Louis Stars and San Jose Earthquakes, making a total of 103 league appearances.

CB: Datuk M. Chandran (Malaysia)
Datuk M. Chandran was a Malaysian footballer of Indian ethnicity. He was the team captain of the 1972 Olympic Games held in Munich.  In 1974, he helped Malaysia to finish third at the Asian Games.  He also played 15 years for Selangor at home. Chandran was honored with the state title of ‘Dato’, a coveted recognition granted by the royal house of the state of Pahang in 2000, for services to football.
Datuk M. Chandran 
CB: Danny Batth (England)
Batth began his career with his local side Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2009, where he played until 2019.  Most of his career was spent in the lower divsion.  In 2019, he moved to Stoke City.  Born and raised in England, Batth thought at one time he would be eligible to play for India through his father, but he was later ruled ineigible for India.  

DF: Santokh Singh (Malaysia)
Born in Setapak, Santokh played in the Selangor FA team from 1972 to 1985, winning 9 Malaysia Cups as captain of the team.  In the 1970's, he played  alongside the late Mokhtar Dahari, Soh Chin Aun and R. Arumugam for Malaysia.  He helped Malaysia to qualify for the 1980 Olympics, but Malaysia boycotted the event.  he had 104 caps.

CB: Rhys Williams (Australia)
From 2007 to 2016, Rhys Williams played for Middlesbrough, where he played many positions.  He was made club captain in 2012.  He later played for Perth Glory, Melbourne Victory and Al-Qadsiah.  From 2009 to 2014, he was capped 14 times for Australia.  His mother was from India while his father was from the United Kingdom.  He has two brothers who were professional footballers.
Rhys Williams
LB: Thomas Pereira (Norway) 
Thomas Pereira arrived at Viking from Moss in 1997, and stayed at the club the rest of his career. At the end of the 2008 season, he was ranked 7th on Viking's all-time list of appearances. After his thirteenth and last season in Viking he was awarded a testimonial game that was played on 21 November 2009 against SK Brann.Testimonial games are very rare in Norwegian football.  he earned 8 caps for Norway.

LB: Neil Taylor (Wales) 
Neil Taylor began his career with Wrexham in 2007 and moved to Swansea City, going on to make 179 appearances for the Swans. He joined Aston Villa in January 2017.  From 2010 onward, Taylor has been capped 43 times by Wales.  He was born in St Asaph, Denbighshire. He was a part of their Euro 2016 squad that reached the semi-final.  He also represented Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics. 
Neil Taylor 
DM: Aron Winter (Netherlands)
Born in Suriname of an unique ethnic background, Aron Winter was both an Indian and Chinese descendant.  He started his career with Ajax, where he played from 1986 to 1992. He oined Lazio at the height of Serie A during the early 1990's.  He later played for Inter Milan between 1996 and 1999.  For the national team, he was a regular member of the team.  He was capped 84 times and a part of the Euro 1988 winning team. His last major tournament was the Euro 2000.

DM: Harmeet Singh (Norway)
Harmeet Singh is nicknamed "The Norwegian Iniesta" by international media.  He started with Vålerenga in 2007.  He moved to Netherlands' Feyenoord in 2012, but he never settled down.  He left in 2014. He later played for Molde, FC Midtjylland, Kalmar (Sweden), Wisła Płock, HJK (Finland), etc.  From 2012 to 2014, he was capped 5 times for Norway.

CM: Óscar Sonejee (Andorra)
Oscar Sonejee began his career with d FC Andorra, where he had three spells.  He also had and three spells with Lusitanos. He also spent four years with FC Santa Coloma.  He was eligible to play for India because of his parents, but he chose Andorra.  For Andorra, he earned 106 caps between 1997 and 2015.  At the time of his international retirement, he was their cap leader as well as the oldest ever international player for Andorra.
 Óscar Sonejee 
CM/AM: Ricky Hill
From 1976 to 1989, Hill played for Luton Town where he was considered one of their best ever footballers.  He helped them to their promotion to the First Division and won the League Cup.  He also played in France and the United States. Between 1982 and 1986, Hill only played three times for England, but he was the fourth Black player to play for England’s Senior National team and the first British South Asian to represent England at the Senior level.  

RW/LW: Luciano Narsingh (Netherlands)
From 2008 to 2012, Luciano Narsingh played for  SC Heerenveen. From 2012 to 2017, he played for PSV, winning Eredivisie twice.  He played briefly for Swansea before joining Feyenoord in 2019. From 2012 onward, he played 16 times for Netherlands.  He participated at the 2012 European Championship.  He missed the 2014 World Cup because of an injury.  He is of Surinamese background with some Indian descent.
Luciano Narsingh
RW: Ryan Williams (Australia)  
Williams spent time with Portsmouth and Fulham early in his career, but saw limited action.  Then, he played for Barnsley and Rotherham United before returning to Portsmouth in 2019.  In 2019, he made his debut with Australia.  His brother Rhys Williams also played for Australia.    His mother was from India while his father was from the United Kingdom.

RW: Jimmy Carter (England) 
Carter began his career with Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers, but he did not make it until he joined Millwall in 1987. He joined Arsenal in 1995 after spending a season with Liverpool.  He also played for Portsmouth. His father originated from India. He was the first British Asian to play in the Premier League, although this was not known at the time as Carter did not publicly disclose his background and his name did not make it obvious.

AM: Vikash Dhorasoo (France)
Vikash Dhorasoo began his football career with Le Havre AC.  Then, he played 5 seasons with Lyonnais with a brief spell at Bordeaux from 2001 and 2002, before he returned to Lyon in 2002.  He also played for AC Milan in 2004, where they reached the Champions' League Final in 2005.  He also played for PSG and Livorno.  From 1999 to 2006, he played 18 times for France.  He went to the 2006 World Cup Finals.  Dhorasoo is of Indo-Mauritian origin. 
Vikash Dhorasoo 
AM: Ricky Heppolette (England)
Ricky Heppolette was born in Bhusawal, India. He started with Preston North End in 1967, where he played until 1973.  From 1973 to 1976, he played for Leyton Orient. He later played for Crystal Palace, Chesterfield, Peterborough United and Hong Kong club Eastern AA.  He was one of the few Asians playing in England during the 1970's.

AM: Sarpreet Singh (New Zealand)
Born in New Zealand to Indian parents, Sarpreet Singh played for Onehunga Sports in his youth before signing for Wellington Phoenix in 2015.  he then joined Bayern Munich in 2019, where he made his senior debut in December, 2019.  At the time of writing, he has represented New Zealand since 2018.

ST: V. Sundramoorthy (Singapore)
Sundramoorthy broke into the Singapore Malaysia Cup team during the 1980s, as he was just 18 years of age. He left Singapore to play in Switzerland for FC Basel in 1988.  He later played for Kedah, Pahang and Singapore(club).  In the S.League, he played for Woodlands Wellington FC and Jurong.  From 1983 to 1995, he played for the national team.

ST: Derrick "Shastri" Denniser (Jamaica)
Derrick Denniser was known as the "Coolie Pele".  He played for Kingston College (KC) from 1964 to 1972. During that time Shastri also played for the south St Andrew-based Boy's Town Football Club before being called to Jamaica's senior national team.  He toured with the Jamaican national team in the 1970's.  He also attended the the Pan American Games in Colombia and Mexico.

FW: Michael Chopra (England) 
Michael Chopra spent six years with Newcastle United, but mainly on loan at Watford, Nottingham Forest, and Barnsley.  He later played at Cardiff City, Sunderland, Ipswich, Blackpool, Kerala Blasters and Alloa Athletic.  He was Cardiff City Player of the Year: 2006–07.  He has represented for England at the youth level.  He played in the 2000 UEFA European Under-16 Championship and the 2002 UEFA European Under-19 Championship.  He has considered playing for India at the senior level.
Michael Chopra 
Honorable Mention
Prince Rajcomar (Curaçao), Sunny Dhaliwal (Canada), John William "Jack" Cother (Great Britain), Edwin "Eddie" Cother (Great Britain), Netan Sansara (Great Britain), Kiran Bechan (Netherlands/Suriname), Ricardo Kishna (Netherlands/Suriname), Aryn Williams (Australia), Furdjel Narsingh (Netherlands),  Aman Verma (England), Daniel De Silva (Australia), Furdjel Narsingh (Netherlands), Yan Dhanda (Great Britain), Chris Dolby (United Kingdom), Rudy Pounoussamy (Reunion, France), Bud Hudson (Great Britain), Gderry Francis (South Africa).

Squad Explanation
-- Before starting this blog team, I only heard of Michael Chopra, Vikash Dhorasoo and Aron Winter as PIO players.  I did not know trhat Ricky Hill was Indian.  They along with Luciano Narsingh (Netherlands) and Neil Taylor (Wales) are the greatest POI players in history, I think.  Jimmy Carter (England) was first Indian player to play in the top tier of the English league. They are automatic selections.  
-- India does not allow dual citizenship making it hard for PIO players to be capped by India.  Arata Izumi gave to give up his Japanese citizenship so that he could play for India.  He is the first PIO capped by India.
-- The Coither brothers played in the 19th Century for Watford. John William (Jack) Cother and Edwin (Eddie) Cother were made honorable mentions.  They were the first South Asian players to play in the English league.  I have limited information on them.
-- Some of the players selected traced back their Indian ancestry many generations back. They are not eligible to become Indian citizens, but I considered them as POI.  I took "one drop" of blood approach on my criteria.
-- There are a number of PIO footballers playing in the lower levels of the English leagues.  They might be better than some of the players selected.  I still took players from other parts of the world playing a lower standard of football than that of England.  For example, Datuk M. Chandran (Malaysia) was probably the greatest defender ever from Southeast Asia.  He was on my All-Time Southeast Asian team.  I also selected Derrick "Shastri" Denniser because he was considered one of Jamaica's greatest players.  I used international caps as a criteria.  I considered the "caps" as contributions to their national team.
-- Several India-born players of British ancestry have played for England.  All of whom were born during the British Raj.  James F.M. Prinsep appeared for England as a 17 years old 1879. He was England's youngest international until 2006 when Wayne Rooney broke his record. Alf Quantrill played 4 times for England in the 1920's.  He was married to Steve Bloomer's daughter.
-- Edu of Brazil who played for Arsenal is listed by a chat group as a PIO, but I did not find enough evidence.
-- Robin Dutt of Germany is a good manager, but never played in a high level. 
Goalkeepers
-- Goalkeeper Kevin Keelan was born in India but was probably of mixed race.  I took two other goalkeepers with some international experience.  Greg Ranjitsingh was capped by Trinidad and Tobago.  R. Arumugam was a well-known goalkeeper from Malaysia.
-- Ruby Pounoussam (Reunion/France) and Karman Saini (Canada) were considered for the third goalkeeper.  I do not know the current status of goalkeeper Sunny Dhaliwal.  He seemed to have left professional football.  At the time of writing, Rohan Luthra is only is on the roster of Slough City down in England's National League.  He might make it one day.
-- Goalkeeper Karman Saini was born in Canada.  For a single season in 2017, he was on the book of Husqvarna in Sweden.  Before that, he played for Oakville Blue Devils.  He also played Humber College.  In his two seasons, the Hawks never lost a match and posted an overall record of 31-0-1 (.984).  He was named as an OCAA All-Star in 2016, while winning two national titles.  He made honorable mention.
-- Aman Dosanj who was a female goalkeeper was the first British Indian to be capped by England at any level.
Defenders
-- Mahatma Gandhi (Brazil) is not a PIO.  His parents only named him after the founding father of India.  
-- Danny Batth is of mixed English and Sikh Punjabi descent.
-- Kashif Siddiqi's father is believed to be from India, but he played for Pakistan, in which I ruled him ineligible due to the political situation between India and Pakistan.  It is hard for me to list a Pakistani international on a blog team for Indians.
-- Ryan Williams and Aryn Williams are twin brothers.  They are younger brothers of Rhys William (Australia).  Aryn only made Honorable mention while the other two are on this team.  Rhys played for Liverpool.
-- Santokh Singh and R. Arumugam were well-known Malaysian footballers of Indian origin.   V. Sundramoorthy was actually the second Singaporean to play in Europe, a career that few Indians managed to secure.  He deserved a spot.  I also decided not to take Netan Sansara.  I preferred those international players who were considered the greatest ever from their countries.   
-- The selection of Roger Verdi was based upon his involvement with the NASL and playing against Pele. I am not sure about his true position, but he said that he played rightback in the NASL.  He actually did not make it in English club football, which should set him back.  In the end, I took him because he represented an era in the world of football.  
-- Letfback Neil Taylor has played at least 6 seasons in the Preimership.  He also represented the Great Britain at the London Olympics.  His mother is Indian.
Midfielders/Wingers
-- Samuel Moutoussamy (DR Congo) status as a PIO is unknown. 
-- Arata Izumi is a half-Japanese player.  He is the first PIO to play for India. His international status with India does not make any difference.  He is a PIO and he should be eligible for this team.
-- Óscar Sonejee might not held the same merits as other professional players, but he was one of  Andorra's greatest footballers.
-- I selected Ricky Heppolette because he was a pioneer in football.  He played in England during the 1970's when POI seldom got the opportunities to play. For a long time, he was the faces of South Asian players in England.  He played in Hong Kong during the 1980's, where I watched him.  I heard of Brian "Bud" Hudson, but I have limited information on him.  He played roughly the same time as Heppolette, I believed.  He only made honorable mention.
 -- Vikash Dhorasoo is the most famous FOI player in the world.
-- Ricky Hill was the fourth Black player to play for England’s senior National team and the first British South Asian to represent England at the senior level (his father's family originated from India via Jamaica).  He had a pivotal role in Luton Town’s promotion to the First Division in 1982.  He was largely considered to be one of Luton Town's greatest players. 
Ricky Hill
-- Arata Izumi was the only PIO who played for India. He began his professional career in Singapore with Albirex Niigata Singapore and in his native Japan for Mitsubishi Mizushima before moving to India in 2006. He played with East Bengal and Mahindra United before spending six seasons with Pune. He then went on to play for Atlético de Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune City, and NEROCA.  He was capped 9 times for India.  I did not have a space for him.
-- Kiran Bechan (Netherlands/Suriname) 
-- Aron Winter is a multiracial background, but he is often listed as a "PIO".  He is also on my Chinese Diaspora All-Time Team as well as my Dutch-Surinamese team.  His cousin Ricardo Winter was the Suriname Player of the Year in 1990, but I have no idea of his ethnic background.  Aron's Indian side of the family might have come from his mother's side. 
-- Jimmy Carter is listed as the first British Indians to play in the Premiership, but he did not identify his racial background during his career.  In actuality, Ricky Hill
-- I selected Right-winger Luciano Narsingh because he has participated a major international tournament, namely the 2012 European Championship.  His brother Furdjel Narsingh is also a professional footballer.
-- South African Gerry Francis played for Leeds United between 1959 and 1962.  He was described as a mixed race player.  He was a right winger.  But I already had three right wingers on the team.  Two of them played international football while Jimmy Carter had a long career in professional football, including stints with Liverpool FC.  Francis's ethnicity was also unconfirmed.
-- Yan Dhanda who was with Liverpool, is now making now in Scotland.  He was listed as an attacking midfielder, left winger and forward, but Ricardo Kishna (Netherlands/Suriname) had played in more games in bigger leagues.  But as of 2023, he seemed to be out of a club.
-- Joshua Pynadath is too young to be considered as of 2023.  He is also a winger.
Forwards
-- I did not have much choices for forwards.
-- Michael Chopra spent six years with Newcastle United.  He was the more famous PIO players.  
-- Derrick "Shastri" Denniser of Jamaica was known as "Coolie Pele".  I believed that he was striker.  His name actually not mentioned when I researched for Jamaican All-Time Team.  of course, under my PIO research, he was founded.
-- V. Sundramoorthy of Singapore was the only player of note i discovered during my research.
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Formation
Luciano Narsingh can play on the left wing.  So I play Jimmy Carter on the right. Sarpreet Singh (New Zealand) might start one day.  I used Oscar Sonejee for his international experience. He had 106 caps.


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