Yan Dhanda (born 14 December 1998) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who currently plays for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

side Ross County as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He is a former England under-17 international.

Early life

Dhanda was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

, and grew up in

Tipton Tipton is an industrial town in the West Midlands in England with a population of around 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham. Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country, w ...

. His mother is white English while his father was born in England to parents from

Punjab, India Punjab (; ) is a state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, and ...

Club career

Dhanda began his youth career at

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

before moving to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, spending five years in the youth ranks at

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 189 ...

. In his final season with the youth team, he scored five times from 18 appearances in the

Premier League 2 The Professional Development League is a system of youth football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the Football Association via the Elite Player Performanc ...

campaign. In May 2018, he left Liverpool to join

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

club Swansea City where he was originally expected to be with the Under 23s. Dhanda made his debut as a substitute for Swansea on 4 August 2018 against

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

in a 2–1 win, scoring the winner with his first touch only moments after entering the field. On 21 June 2022, Dhanda signed a 2 year contract with Highland-based

team Ross County.

International career

Dhanda has represented the England U16 and England U17's at international level.

Personal life

Dhanda is of

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

heritage through his father. He has said that the

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...

he has encountered as a British Asian footballer inspires him to play at his best. The most prominent racial abuse that Dhanda received was from a 14 year old child from Kent, who sent a racist message to Dhanda on social media following Swansea City's 2021 FA Cup loss to Manchester City.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhanda, Yan 1998 births Living people Footballers from Birmingham, West Midlands Sportspeople from Tipton English footballers England youth international footballers Association football midfielders Liverpool F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players English Football League players English people of Punjabi descent British sportspeople of Indian descent British Asian footballers Scottish Professional Football League players Ross County F.C. players