Stoke City star Soo honoured with Google Doodle

That name is likely to have many Stoke City fans scratching their head and asking ‘Frank Who’ and he will likely be a name remembered only by a select few who can cast themselves back to former glory days of a side which contained the legendary Stanley Matthews.

However, Soo has a special place in football history and that is what has driven Google to celebrate his life with this special Doodle (the ‘g’ rotating to form a #9 shirt):

Soo became, in 1942, the first player of non-European descent – and still the only player ever of Asian heritage – to pull on an England shirt when he turned out against Wales on May 9 in a wartime friendly.

This debut, on this day 78 years ago, was the first on nine international appearances for England and back before he debuted for the Three Lions there was a stench of racism with his appearances in domestic football where he was often referred to as Chinaman Frank Soo.

His England appearances legitimised his place in English football, as did his service in the RAF during WWII where he even represented the flyers against Scotland in a 7-1 defeat in Sheffield.

After leaving Stoke, Soo moved to Leicester City where he was captain before other spells at Luton Town and Chelmsford where he ended his playing days. He then went on to manage Serie A side Padova before moving on to Scandanavia where he coached a number of clubs as well as leading the Norwegian national at the 1952 Olympics.