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

Image of bird at US-Mexico border wall wins contest

 

Alejandro Prieto's image of a roadrunner bird at the Mexican-US border wallIMAGE SOURCEALEJANDRO PRIETO / BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
image captionMr Prieto has documented wildlife at the US-border wall and their ecosystems

Mexican photographer Alejandro Prieto's image of a bird at the US-Mexico border wall has won a prestigious photo contest.

Mr Prieto was named the grand prize winner of the Bird Photographer of the Year competition after his image was selected from 22,000 entries.

His winning photograph depicts a roadrunner bird that has stopped in front of the wall.

He says the image highlights the threat to biodiversity that the wall poses.

The US-Mexico border region is a delicate ecosystem with regular animal and bird migrations moving north and south on the American continent.

In this region, a number of species need to cross the border to mate with their genetically different cousins, including the endangered North American jaguar and the black bear, which was re-introduced to Texas in the 1990s.

"The border wall crosses deserts, mountains and even mangroves. It is not just desert, and is in fact very biodiverse with more than 1,500 animal and plant species threatened by the wall," Mr Prieto said.

"I have watched many different animals reach the wall before turning around and heading back," he added.

Mr Prieto, from Guadalajara, was awarded £5,000 ($6,877) for winning the Bird Photographer of the Year competition. Other categories included Young Bird Photographer of the Year and Urban Birds.

Mr Prieto has been documenting wildlife at the border for over a year. During that time, he said he faced harassment from border control and the constant presence of drug cartels.

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media captionChildren play together on seesaws at the US-Mexico border

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