How non-league football can help players from all communities rebuild their careers

Dropping into non-league might not sound like an attractive option for some footballers, but it can offer an obvious advantage: exposure. If clubs are willing to be honest, open and give everybody an opportunity then careers can be rebuilt and all parties will benefit.

One of my squad at Hereford FC, Mazhiar Kouhyar, is an example that I hold particularly close. I am very proud of him: he was the first Afghanistan-born player to appear in professional football in this country, but fell out of the game after leaving Walsall. He worked at KFC for a while and was employed as a car salesman when I first met him early last year.

We took him on trial and I remember him joining us at Warwick University for his first training session. You can tell, as a manager, when a player has got it. Mazhiar moved differently, he is an international too and his running patterns were a class above. You could tell he had played at a high level and a couple of months later he was walking out at Wembley for us in the FA Trophy final.

In the Football League, you don’t see many trialists coming through. Club boards aren’t that keen and I know, from my own playing career, that the lads in the dressing room often aren’t having them. There’s a bit more openness at our level to different possibilities, and then players get a platform to perform.

Mazhiar is one of very few players of Asian heritage in English football. When I was coming through at West Brom 20 years ago we had a very good south Asian player in our ranks, but then he essentially disappeared without a trace. I played for a number of clubs and don’t remember having an Asian teammate. It’s sad and alarming that things have not really moved on.

We were introduced to Mazhiar by his agency,