On the sidelines with Rise United, the football club redefining Asian identity

Football, family style — Blending creativity on and off the pitch, the London ESEA+ grassroots team is providing its burgeoning community with spaces to express, and be, themselves.

It’s just past noon on a caged, astro­turf foot­ball pitch in east Lon­don, and Gian­lu­ca takes the ball on the half-turn, rough­ly six yards from the goal. Look­ing up to see if a pass is on, he instead sees space open up direct­ly in front of him and goes for goal him­self, slid­ing the ball into the bot­tom right cor­ner with a non­cha­lant bravado.

I swear when­ev­er I play with you,” his team­mate says. You always score a hat-trick.”

Who’s the star play­er? I ask.

Every­one,” Gian­lu­ca replies, with a wry smile. The play­ers around him nod, as if to say: Of course.”

Gian­lu­ca is cap­tain­ing his team in a Rise Unit­ed ses­sion, and is one of the day’s organ­is­ers. Alto­geth­er, there are four teams of sev­en, play­ing six-a-side match­es. There’s play­ers from a con­ti­nent-span­ning range of East and South­east Asian (ESEA+) back­grounds, from Viet­nam to Chi­na, via the Phillip­ines and Laos, while the teams are mixed gen­der. It’s a fun, loose­ly com­pet­i­tive after­noon of foot­ball that’s as much about a spir­it of com­mu­ni­ty and togeth­er­ness as it is about find­ing the back of the net.

Found­ed as Lon­don and the UK was reemerg­ing from the pan­dem­ic, Rise Unit­ed is a grass­roots foot­ball club for the city’s ESEA+ com­mu­ni­ty. Its name, while ref­er­enc­ing the direc­tion its founders are hop­ing the com­mu­ni­ty is head­ed, is also a wink­ing nod to the continent’s most con­sumed food­stuff – rice.

Rise Unit­ed start­ed post-pan­dem­ic as a response to Asian hate,” explains Dar­ren, one of Rise United’s founders and organ­is­ers. Lock­down, and the Covid-19 virus’s asso­ci­a­tion with Chi­na, led to a sharp rise in anti-ESEA+ racism and vio­lence in the UK and beyond, with Al-Jazeera report­ing300% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in 2021. We felt like because of that Asian hate, a lot of us are mar­gin­alised and iso­lat­ed – foot­ball becomes a solu­tion to work togeth­er as a team for us.”

First begin­ning as a hand­ful of around 10 friends meet­ing up to kick a ball around, it has since bal­looned into a wider com­mu­ni­ty of over 200 peo­ple and over a dozen her­itages, with ses­sions tak­ing place each Sun­day. Beyond back­grounds, there’s also no con­sis­ten­cy with skill lev­el or foot­ball expe­ri­ence – every­one, of course, is a star play­er. There’s some who had nev­er kicked a ball until they first took part in a Rise ses­sion pass­ing the ball to oth­ers, like Lily and Jun, who have been play­ing foot­ball since they were able to run.

I played for a boys’ team until I was 10,” says Lili, who grew up in Liv­er­pool and is ten­ta­tive­ly warm­ing up on the side­lines, hav­ing picked up an injury recent­ly that she’s try­ing to man­age. Then I got scout­ed for a girls’ team, and we were actu­al­ly pret­ty good – we went to a nation­al cham­pi­onship and beat all of the acad­e­my teams – Liv­er­pool, Unit­ed, City – it was just a load of lit­tle scouse girls who had nev­er done acad­e­my before.”

“Rise United started post-pandemic as a response to Asian hate. We felt like because of that Asian hate, a lot of us are marginalised and isolated – football becomes a solution to work together as a team for us.” Darren, Rise United co-founder

But while she’d reached the pin­na­cle of youth foot­ball, the sport had nev­er inter­sect­ed with her Chi­nese iden­ti­ty. I grew up in a very, very white town, and I was always the only Asian on the pitch,” she con­tin­ues. One time there was a girl who was Fil­ipino on the oppo­site team, and I remem­ber that being a real thing for me, like: Oh, there’s anoth­er Asian here.’” 

It’s an expe­ri­ence shared by Jun, who grew up in South Wales, before mov­ing to Lon­don over a decade ago, and many oth­er play­ers on the pitch today. Despite East and South­east Asia being home to one of the sport’s largest fan­bas­es in the world – hun­dreds of mil­lions of fans fol­low the Pre­mier League in South­east Asia – foot­ball is rarely asso­ci­at­ed with ESEA+ com­mu­ni­ties in the west, with its dias­po­ra often stereo­typed towards more aca­d­e­m­ic pur­suits. I’ve played com­pet­i­tive foot­ball all my life, and I was the only Asian kid ever to be play­ing on a team,” he says. Rise has been refresh­ing – it’s less com­pet­i­tive, and it’s more wel­com­ing and invit­ing. It’s more of a com­mu­ni­ty [than com­pet­i­tive football.”

Away from the pitch, Jun is a cre­ative direc­tor, and he also works with Dar­ren on their agency 1314FAMILYSTYLE. It was born out of the net­works that Rise Unit­ed had fos­tered and built – play­ing today are pho­tog­ra­phers, writ­ers, pro­duc­ers and more – as well as its inter­sec­tions with London’s wider ESEA+ cre­ative scene. Alter­na­tive music record label and event series East­ern Margins’s own cre­ative direc­tor, Loren­zo, also works at 1314FAMILYSTYLE.

We look at our­selves as a cre­ative mid­field­er,” says Dar­ren. We’re try­ing to look around to pass and sup­port peo­ple around us so they can score goals. We work with Her­ac Sport, East­ern Mar­gins, Bugeisha Club and more.”

He’s wear­ing an intri­cate­ly designed black and white shirt, filled with a grid of the Hong Kong orchid tree tak­en from its flag, which was cre­at­ed for the annu­al Nations Cup, where its play­ers gath­er in teams rep­re­sent­ing coun­tries of their her­itage. This was designed by 888.msg – he’s also the art direc­tor for Mar­gins Unit­ed and East­ern Mar­gins,” he explains. It was inspired by the dev­il team in Shaolin Soc­cer, [direc­tor] Steven Chow changed the cin­e­mat­ic cul­ture of Hong Kong – I’m inspired by him a lot.”

By com­bin­ing sport, com­mu­ni­ty and cre­ativ­i­ty, Rise Unit­ed is one arm of a wider move­ment of ESEA+ peo­ple refram­ing Asian iden­ti­ty in the UK. Oth­er sport­ing ven­tures like the afore­men­tioned Her­ac Sport and FLINTA-focused club and col­lec­tive BAE­SIANZ FC are pro­vid­ing spaces to loosen the limbs, while last year saw the debut edi­tion of Mar­gins Unit­ed – Europe’s first fes­ti­val ded­i­cat­ed to alter­na­tive ESEA+ music and arts, organ­ised by East­ern Mar­gins. I think what we are now is no longer ESEA+,” says Dar­ren. We’re more of a third cul­ture, we’ve become dias­po­ra-focused, where we can mix in both east and west, and find rel­e­vant cul­tur­al solu­tions with­in that.”

As the games wind down, the teams merge into a full pitch sized game. Sub­sti­tutes hang out on the side­lines, catch­ing up with each oth­er, shar­ing what they are plan­ning to eat for din­ner, and how their pets are get­ting on. In a giant city like Lon­don, where despite being sur­round­ed by peo­ple con­stant­ly it’s easy to feel iso­lat­ed – it’s the friend­ship and com­mu­ni­ty that mat­ters more than the final score.

It’s real­ly ful­fill­ing and heart­warm­ing,” says Lili. It’s so nice to have a com­mu­ni­ty here with peo­ple who have sim­i­lar expe­ri­ences and upbring­ings – I had nev­er met so many Chi­nese peo­ple in my life until the Nations Cup – being sur­round­ed by so many Asian peo­ple feels like this is how life should have always been.”

Meet some of Rise United’s play­ers and com­mu­ni­ty below.

Dar­ren, 33

Her­itage: Hong Kong. What do you do? I’m a pho­tog­ra­ph­er and founder of cre­ative stu­dio 1314FAMILYSTYLE. Which pro­fes­sion­al foot­baller do you see your­self as? N’Golo Kan­té. What dish are you bring­ing to the potluck? Siu Mai.

June, 24

Her­itage: Chi­nese-Ger­man, but I grew up in the Nether­lands. How long have you been a part of Rise? One year, near­ly to the day. What are you bring­ing to the potluck? Rhubarb crum­ble. To me, Rise Unit­ed means… Being able to con­nect with peo­ple oth­er peo­ple from my her­itage for the first time.

Tom, 31

Her­itage: Japan­ese-British. Which pro­fes­sion­al foot­baller do you see your­self as? Grow­ing up my idol was Steven Ger­rard, but in my game now I try to fol­low Keisuke Hon­da and Shin­ji Kagawa. What are you bring­ing to the potluck? Oni­giri. To me, Rise Unit­ed means… A space for peo­ple to come togeth­er from dif­fer­ent back­grounds and build some­thing that’s their own.

Sophie, 28

Her­itage: Hong Kong-British. What do you do? Cre­ative pro­duc­er and mag­a­zine edi­tor. What are you bring­ing to the potluck? Some kind of tofu sit­u­a­tion, maybe hon­ey and soy. To me, Rise Unit­ed means… Healthy ener­gy.

Ho Yin, 20 and Sueee, 23

Her­itage Hong Kong / Kore­an. Which pro­fes­sion­al foot­baller do you see your­self as? Maybe Lee Kang In. What dish are you bring­ing to the potluck? A big pot of imi­ta­tion shark fin soup / Kim­chi. To me, Rise Unit­ed means… [HY:] The chance to play foot­ball again after break­ing my wrist, com­mu­ni­ty, and help­ing me make lots of friends – even a girl­friend / A chance to play with fel­low peo­ple from my her­itage and my boyfriend and have a fun time together.

Abe, 28

Her­itage: Half-Fil­ipino, and a quar­ter Egypt­ian and Sudanese. What do you do? I work in the NHS, on brand­ing. Which pro­fes­sion­al foot­baller do you see your­self as? Alphonse Are­o­la, he’s actu­al­ly mar­ried to my cousin and is a mas­sive sup­port­er of Rise. What are you bring­ing to the potluck? French squid sal­ad. Any fresh herbs you’ve got, squid, toma­to, tar­ragon, lime.

Lili, 28

Her­itage: Chi­nese, Irish and Eng­lish. What do you do? I’m a pro­duc­er in film and TV. Which pro­fes­sion­al foot­baller do you see your­self as? Alex­ia Putel­las. She’s pret­ty cool and good at run­ning the mids. What are you bring­ing to the potluck? Prob­a­bly some smacked cucum­ber and tofu situation.

Gian­lu­ca, 28

Her­itage: Sin­ga­pore­an-Ital­ian. What do you do? Plan­ner for Hack­ney Coun­cil. What are you bring­ing to the potluck? Nasi Lemak. Which pro­fes­sion­al foot­baller do you see your­self as? John Obi Mikel, because I’m quite slow. To me, Rise Unit­ed means… A rea­son to get up on a Sun­day morn­ing to go and see my friends.

Mai, 31

Her­itage: Viet­namese. What do you do? I have a cor­po­rate job, which I do for mon­ey, and I make ceram­ics. What dish are you bring­ing to the potluck? I recent­ly redis­cov­ered a noo­dle dish Ốc đậu chuối, which lit­er­al­ly trans­lates to snail, tofu, banana”.

Miran­da, 28

Her­itage: Half-Chi­nese, half-Eng­lish. What do you do? Civ­il ser­vant. What dish are you bring­ing to the potluck? Steamed salmon, Can­tonese style, with lots of chopped chill­ies and spring onions. To me, Rise Unit­ed means… A lot of real­ly kind and enthu­si­as­tic peo­ple who are keen to kelp each oth­er play foot­ball, and in life.

Thier­ry, 32

Her­itage: Viet­namese. Which foot­baller do you see your­self as? I’m try­ing to chan­nel Pierre, our tall and hand­some Scot­tish-Malay strik­er who usu­al­ly tucks his shirt into his shorts. What dish are you bring­ing to the potluck? Baguettes and pâté. To me, Rise Unit­ed means… A dream come true. I grew up in a main­ly white area of the south of France, and went through stuff like casu­al racism on and off the pitch. Hav­ing this sort of team would have helped me, but I’m glad I found it in London.

Ricar­do, 22

Her­itage: Jamaican-Eng­lish. What do you do? I study Japan­ese at uni­ver­si­ty, and out­side of that do direct­ing and pro­duc­tion work. Which pro­fes­sion­al foot­baller do you see your­self as? Nico­las Jack­son, because I’m okay at pass­ing and drib­bling, but I can’t fin­ish. What are you bring­ing to the potluck? Some real­ly good pork dumplings.

Claire, 32

Her­itage: Fil­ipino-Chi­nese, and Cana­di­an. What do you do? Prod­uct design­er and DJ. What are you bring­ing to the potluck? A siz­zling sisig plat­ter. To me, Rise Unit­ed means… Group ther­a­py – it’s like heal­ing my inner child.

Addi­tion­al pro­duc­tion from 1314FAMILYSTYLE.

Fol­low Rise Unit­ed on Insta­gram.

Fol­low Isaac on Bluesky.

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