Dubai: Zesh Rahman, the first British Asian to start in an English Premier League match, believes the UAE’s Omar Abdul Rahman can help break down barriers with a successful trial at Manchester City this week.

Speaking after Al Wasl’s 4-3 friendly loss to Hong Kong’s Kitchee SC in Dubai on Wednesday, the 28-year-old Britain-born Pakistani defender, said the next generation of UAE talent needed more diverse role models.

Despite there being approximately 500,000 British Arabs and 2.8 million British Asians making up a collective seven per cent of the UK’s population, only seven Arabs and one South Asian play in the Premier League — 1.4 per cent of the total number of players registered.

If successful at City, Omar would be only the second GCC national in English top flight football after Oman’s Ali Al Habsi, but Zesh Rahman is determined to change this and is offering his expertise to the UAE clubs to get players into Europe.

“There are some very good players in Asia and the more that go to England and the more that other cultures come here [to Asia], the more coaches can be taught to embed a player from Asia into their squad and vice-versa,” said Zesh Rahman, formerly of Fulham and Bradford, who is also the only British-Asian to have played in all four English leagues.

“The stereotypes I had growing up were: wrong diet, not strong enough, scared of the weather. These misconceptions put barriers in the way before kids even kick a ball — being told I should be playing cricket not football was not nice,” he added.

“There were no role models when I was growing up. That was my motivation to try and be the person for the next generation to look up to and follow.”

“If you look back to the 1970s, there were very few black players and they went through torrid abuse. I think history will repeat itself, but it’s taking time and we’ve got to stick at it. There’s more progress than ten years ago, but its still a little too slow.”

Zesh Rahman, who has played in Thailand and Hong Kong since leaving England last year, said he hoped more diversity in the English League, imported or homegrown, would open the floodgates.

“If Omar Abdul Rahman goes to England, he needs to be made aware of what to expect and how to cope, because playing in Asia and then England is totally different; from the preparation, mindset and what you can expect from the fans. He needs strong positive mentors. If they have the right advisors before they go then they can go and stay, but if you’re just going for the sake of a bit of PR it’s pointless.”