Cardiff City trailblazer Rohan Luthra to join Slough Town on loan; 6ft 5in Punjabi stopper is the first goalkeeper from Britain’s South Asian community ever to play in Sky Bet Championship; FSA appoints Nilesh Chauhan to succeed Anwar Uddin MBE and lead Fans for Diversity campaign
By Dev Trehan, @DevTrehan
England youth goalkeeper Rohan Luthra is set for a loan move to Slough Town, Sky Sports News can reveal.
Luthra will sign for Slough Town on loan for the rest of the season, subject to clearance.
The stopper is highly-rated by the Bluebirds and is expected to train both at Slough Town and at Cardiff during the course of the season.
Sky Sports News exclusively revealed back in June 2021 that Luthra was leaving Crystal Palace after a decade at the south London club, before breaking the news the goalkeeper was on his way to Cardiff where he would become the first British South Asian to sign for the team since Michael Chopra more than a decade earlier.
Watch Aaron Ramsey score this stunner for Cardiff at Leicester, his first goal since returning to the club.
The emergence of 6ft 5in Punjabi goalkeeper Luthra provided one of the few bright spots for Bluebirds fans last season, with Cardiff sneaking into 21st place after enduring an underwhelming campaign.
Luthra came off the bench in the latter stages of Cardiff’s loss away at Preston in March, becoming the first goalkeeper to come out of Britain’s South Asian community to play in the Sky Bet Championship.
Chopra: A brilliant moment
Former Newcastle and Sunderland striker Chopra, who scored 63 goals in 159 appearances for Cardiff, said Luthra is now an inspiration for the next generation of footballers from South Asian backgrounds.
“It was a brilliant moment for the South Asian community when Rohan came on for Cardiff,” Chopra told Sky Sports News.
“Sometimes you only get one chance in life and that is especially true in the football world. Sometimes you only get one chance to make your mark, and if you can’t, people often look elsewhere, especially with the amount of money that’s involved in football now.
“I was very happy to see him get the opportunity, and now everyone wants to see him kick on and build on that.
“It’s great what he is doing. It’s great that people can actually look up to him now, especially other South Asian heritage goalkeepers. He’s proved that it can be done and that South Asians can do it if they get the opportunity.”
A multi-talented sportsman, Luthra earned a double-scholarship to attend Croydon’s famous Whitgift School, whose former pupils include England batsman Jason Roy and rugby union players Elliot Daly, Danny Cipriani and Marland Yarde.
Luthra, 21, became an English County Schools champion with Whitgift and spent two years playing in the same team as Chelsea and England winger Callum Hudson-Odoi.
The pair won back-to-back national Independent Schools Football Association Cups together, with Luthra keeping a clean sheet and Hudson-Odoi scoring a hat-trick in a 3-0 win in the 2014 final.
Chauhan replaces Uddin as Fans for Diversity chief
Anti-discrimination in football campaigner Nilesh Chauhan has replaced Anwar Uddin MBE as chief of the Fans for Diversity campaign after the story was broken exclusively by Sky Sports News.
The first British-Bangladeshi to play professionally, Anwar Uddin, talks South Asian representation in football with Watford’s Hamza Choudhury. Nujum Sports ambassador Choudhury is the only British-Bangladeshi ever to play in the Premier League.
Sky Sports News revealed earlier this year that Uddin, who is the mastermind behind Fans for Diversity, was leaving his role with the Football Supporters
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