Alloa wonderkid on racism in Scottish football as striker states he must 'work harder than the average person'

A young Scots-Asian footballer who dreams of emulating Cristiano Ronaldo has told of the racism he has had to overcome in his fledgling career.

Hot-shot Rayan Mohammed made his first-team debut for Alloa Athletic at the age of 17 after scoring 35 goals in four months for club’s youth side. When he took to the field against Falkirk, the youngster, from Edinburgh, became one of the few homegrown talents from Scotland’s Asian community to make it into the senior SPFL ranks.

The 1100 fans who saw him play would have come away impressed by the jet-heeled forward who won a late penalty that rescued a point for his team. But to get this far, Rayan has faced incidents of racism, which he managed to overcome thanks to the backing of his mum Shameem and dad Asif – a former Scottish taekwondo champ. He said: “I’m lucky to have the parents I do – they’re always pushing me. They spent so much time taking me to training, standing in the rain and the snow pushing me to be the best I can be.

“I’ve had a few negative experiences and the way I’ve always felt is that I’ve had to work harder than the average person to be recognised. Being an Asian boy, it’s seemed like I’ve had to be two or three times better to look special.

“I know I’ve not reached the top yet but it does make me proud that I’m on my way and can be someone for other kids from my community to look to.

“I’ve experienced racism a couple of times on the pitch. There was one instance in an under-16 game where a player made a racist comment to me. The referee heard it and the player ended up being banned for six months.

“Some people might have taken that sort of thing to heart but I just use it as fuel to get better. He’d only reacted like that because I’d got the better of