Watford MP Dean Russell visited Vicarage Road to mark Lunar New Year.
Dean was invited to attend by The Frank Soo Foundation and the British ESEA community Watford supporters. Soo was born in Derbyshire, and late raised in Liverpool, to a Chinese father and an English mother. He was the first and only person from a Chinese or Asian background to play for England. He played for clubs such as Stoke, where he captained the late and great Stanley Matthews, Leicester City, Luton Town and also went on to play for the RAF during WW2. He also appeared as a guest player for Everton, Newcastle United, Chelsea, Brentford, and Millwall to name but a few.
The Frank Soo Foundation has three long term goals it wishes to achieve. These are to promote Frank's story, support our local community, and guide East Asians in their aspirations.
As well as coaching children and co-ordinating coaching qualification programmes, the foundation is also working with national bodies on heritage projects to showcase the contribution of ESEA in football and running grassroots football tournaments such as the annual Chinese Community Challenge Cup.
Hundreds of millions of people around the world celebrated the Lunar New Year and the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit.
Speaking after the celebrations Dean said “Thank you to The Frank Soo Foundation and the British ESEA community for inviting me to join their wonderful celebrations. It was fantastic to learn about Frank Soo. Due to the war in Europe, Frank's games for England were never counted as caps, as these games were all unofficial matches, so it is really important that his achievements are shared and celebrated.”
