Muslim Sports Blog

Aston Villa teenager Easah Suliman wins major sports diversity award

By: Yahya Sidatt | Tags: | Comments: 0

eashAston Villa starlet Easah Suliman was voted the Young Sportsman of The Year at the British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards (BESDA) on Saturday night.

The 18-year-old defender beat off strong competition to claim the prize at the star-studded event held at the JW Marriott Hotel, Park Lane in London. Other celebrities in attendance included Frank Bruno, who won the lifelong achievement award, Denise Lewis, James de Gale, Jason Gardener, Sol Campbell, Dalton Grant and Mark Walters. Lewis Hamilton and Jessica Ennis-Hill picked up the sportsman and woman of the year gongs respectively.

Easah, a Muslim who is the first player of Pakistani heritage to captain an England side, described winning the award as “amazing” saying:  “This feels unbelievable. This is such a great event and I am just so proud to win this award.

“It’s been a good few months for me after winning Young Player of the Year at the Asian Football Awards at Wembley Stadium last November.

“These awards are nice, they are definitely a confidence boost but the important thing for me is to keep working hard and to concentrate on my football.

Easah, who played every minute of England’s U17 World Cup campaign in Chile last autumn, described some of the issues facing Muslims in high level sport: “From a personal point of view it can be difficult keeping up with prayers and things such as Ramadan so thats testing for a footballer but at Aston Villa they have been very understanding and helped me a lot. I’ve been at Aston Villa quite a while so the players do have an understanding of it. If they want to ask me something about Islam or why I do things, they will ask me and I will happily tell them.”

On the issue of getting more Muslims into sport, Easah says that people need more role models: “People need someone to look up to see that there is a path to the top so for me if I can be a role model to Muslims, it will be a great personal achievement for myself.”

 

 

 

 

Leave a Reply