Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

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  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen

Malema OK with 'white' team

Johannesburg - Former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema has defended the racial make-up of the SA Olympic team after suggestions that it was too white.
Malema was asked about the team during an interview with British Sky News on Tuesday.

The Sky News interviewer said: "It did strike me that there weren't many black faces in the group for a black majority country."

Malema said the team members were chosen because they were qualified.

"We think that we're a non-racial country and all South Africans who have qualified to make Team SA should carry the flag proudly, and we support them," he said.

"It's not [any] more about the issue of colour."

Malema said there was still a problem with poor communities not having access to sport. Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula was working to resolve this.

"It's quite a serious challenge, but we're still very proud of our Team SA," Malema said.

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