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
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PHALLIC-SHAPED OWL STATUE IN SERBIA'S NORTH SPARKS PROTESTS

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PHALLIC-SHAPED OWL STATUE IN SERBIA'S NORTH SPARKS PROTESTS

The protestors say the terra-cotta statue’s elongated shape and minimalist features were obscene and demanded its removal.
Serbia’s northern town of Kikinda is now trending on social media for a different reason: a protest over a statue aiming to brand it as the city of owls which many say resembles a phallus rather than an owl. Picture: @stevie_evans1/EWN
Serbia’s northern town of Kikinda is now trending on social media for a different reason: a protest over a statue aiming to brand it as the city of owls which many say resembles a phallus rather than an owl. Picture: @stevie_evans1/EWN
| 2 days ago
KIKINDA - Thousands of keen bird-watchers flock to Serbia’s northern town of Kikinda every winter to see one of the world’s largest roosting populations of long-eared owls.
But the small town on Serbia’s border with Romania is now trending on social media for a different reason: a protest over a statue aiming to brand it as the city of owls which many say resembles a phallus rather than an owl.
The protestors say the terra-cotta statue’s elongated shape and minimalist features were obscene and demanded its removal.
“Freud could say something about this statue, it looks so much like a phallus,” one protester said in a Facebook post.
“Now everyone will ridicule Kikinda,” read another post on Facebook. “This (statue) represents something very masculine, but not an owl,” another said on Twitter.
Local sculptor Jovan Blat, who made the statue, could not be reached for comment. Last week he told Belgrade’s Vecernje Novosti daily he was ready to make a differently-shaped statue. Local authorities declined to comment.
Zeljko Bodrozic, editor-in-chief of a local newspaper, said the owl monument should remain in place.
“With all the hype swirling around it ... in a way it also becomes a symbol of our city.”

Keen birdwatcher Dragan Simic said he did not care about the statue. “Kikinda is now famous for its owls ... across Europe, even around the world ... the bird-watchers are very active, numerous and loyal tourists,” he said.

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