who was reading's first black player/ foreign player

[Einstein agogo]

so who was the first black player on our books ? and to play a league fixture?
who was our first overseas player ? who played first of the two?

[Tony Le Mesmer]

First Black Player was Andy Alleyne. Right Back. made his debut in 1972.

[bobbybottler]

First player with Asian ancestry was Sammy Chung who played for us in the 1950s.

[TheRealRoyal]

Interestingly i remember reading somewhere that Reading were the first english club to sign a foreign player.
An Italian i believe.

After they went on the tour of Italy and beat the likes of AC Milan and the full Italy side i think anyway. They were described by an Italian newspaper as "the finest club in the world" or something along those lines.

Good old history.

[The Cube]

Reading's first foreign player is generally reckoned to be Max Seeburg, who was born in Germany but whose family moved to England at a young age. He signed for Reading in 1912. Seeburg is thought to be the first foreign player to play in England, although that was some years before he joined Reading. He stayed in the Reading area and his great-grandson Doug played once for our reserves in the 1980s following a goalkeeping crisis.

(The Italian mentioned above is Attilio Fresia who arrived in 1913, and was the first Italian to play in England.)

There was however a Reading player from the 1870s who was born in Asia (or to be more precise, on a boat in Asian waters) but he was really English. And his name escapes me for the moment.

Reading did consider signing a black player in 1899 - John Walker - but he joined Lincoln instead.

[Einstein agogo]

brilliant answers THANKS

...right ! lets get back to the more interesting and thought provoking debate about whether shane long is any good or not

[RoyalBlue]

First Black Player was Andy Alleyne. Right Back. made his debut in 1972.

Was it really as recent as Andy Alleyne in 1972?

Makes me wonder who some of the boo boys found to pick on prior to that date!

Mind you, we were still some way ahead of Chelsea. Their first black player, IIRC, was none other than Paul Canoville - a star who later burned very brightly but all too shortly for RFC.

[Chuckle Brother]

First Black Player was Andy Alleyne. Right Back. made his debut in 1972.

Was it really as recent as Andy Alleyne in 1972?

Makes me wonder who some of the boo boys found to pick on prior to that date!

Mind you, we were still some way ahead of Chelsea. Their first black player, IIRC, was none other than Paul Canoville - a star who later burned very brightly but all too shortly for RFC.

Don't even start about Everton then.

And Daniel Amokachi.

[eddiegrundy]

The first black player to play the game professionaly in England was from Ghana - Arthur Wharton played for Darlington 1885-86.

Apologies as this is not Reading related but it does connect with this thread. I just remember reading about plans for a statue of him a while back, but I don't think anything came of it.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/1892280.0/

[bottom left hand corner]

WOW im learning a lot here

I only new the beating the Italian International team not Ac Milan as well what devision was we in then div 3?

[bobbybottler]

First Black Player was Andy Alleyne. Right Back. made his debut in 1972.

Was it really as recent as Andy Alleyne in 1972?

Makes me wonder who some of the boo boys found to pick on prior to that date!

Mind you, we were still some way ahead of Chelsea. Their first black player, IIRC, was none other than Paul Canoville - a star who later burned very brightly but all too shortly for RFC.

Don't even start about Everton then.

And Daniel Amokachi.

Everton?

Mike Trebilcock was of mixed race and played for them in the 1960s

And about the same time as Andy Alleyne was playing for us, Everton had a winger with West Indian ancestry called Cliff Marshall.

Not a lot after that though for a long time.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

WOW im learning a lot here

I only new the beating the Italian International team not Ac Milan as well what devision was we in then div 3?

Division 3 didn't exist back then. We were in the Southern League.


They said we were the best team that Italy had ever seen, and as they've never retracted that statement, I guess that makes us effectively world champions.

[Chuckle Brother]

Everton may have had the odd one but not for years before Amokachi.

And it was the general attitude of their fans that was the problem.

I was at uni in Liverpool in the early 90's and an actual quote I heard when talking to a guy in a pub was "I'm not racist but if Everton ever sign a nigger I'll never go to Goodison Park again".

[Jerry St Clair]

I was at uni in Liverpool in the early 90's and an actual quote I heard when talking to a guy in a pub was "I'm not racist but if Everton ever sign a nigger I'll never go to Goodison Park again".

That's not far off the "You know what our problem is? There are too many darkies in our team" comment I heard in the East Stand during the Burns years. All clubs have these idiots.

[bottom left hand corner]

WOW im learning a lot here

I only new the beating the Italian International team not Ac Milan as well what devision was we in then div 3?

Division 3 didn't exist back then. We were in the Southern League.


They said we were the best team that Italy had ever seen, and as they've never retracted that statement, I guess that makes us effectively world champions.

I geuss they think we changed our name to manchester united at some point

[paultheroyal]

Was it Roberts - our Maltese international - who remembers him?

[From Despair To Where?]

Was it Roberts - our Maltese international - who remembers him?

I remember him, he was shit. One of those never to be remembered mid 80's apprentices like Ben Foster and Pox loanee Sean Reck who would appear once a year for the annual tradition of getting oxf*rd over by Bournemouth in the Freight Rover Trophy in front of a bumper Elm Park crowd of 800.


What i find strange is that people go on about Harpal Singh, Michael Chopra or Zesh Rehman as the first wave of Asian footballers be we had Nas Bashir playing for us when they were still in nappies and he never gets a mention