..and is an incredibly important time for us all to reflect on our own personal journeys around equality, to understand and appreciate the history and culture of black people and to look to promote positivity through education. The first team game on Saturday 02nd October against Felixstowe & Walton United was the clubs dedicated Black History Month game, where we paid homage to those influential black people who make Grays Athletic the fantastically diverse club that it is.

The club handed out specially designed Love Football, Hate Racism Grays Athletic badges to our fans to promote ethnic diversity at the club and to show our support to rid football and society of racial discrimination. Our U13 Blue’s team were mascots for the day are were proud to display their badges and show off the club’s new Everywhere, Anywhere, Everyone, Anyone equality flag which is supported by Fans For Diversity, headed up by former player Anwar Uddin.

Grays Athletic have always been a club that has embraced ethnic diversity and has seen a wealth of talented black footballers grace the club including former fans favourites Aaron Mclean to a more recent Blues Hero, Joao Carlos. A new star is now writing his own piece of Blues history, and that man is Anointed Chuckwu. ‘Chuck’ as he is fondly known by the Grays Athletic faithful, has been in fantastic form this season and is showing why everyone thinks so highly of him.

We caught up with Anointed, the man of the moment to find out a little more about him and why Black History Month is important to him.

Tell us a little about your own culture and upbringing and anything you're particularly proud of regarding your heritage?

I’m very proud of my culture and upbringing. I grew up in an African household, my Dad is Nigerian, and my Mum is Ghanaian. They told me you have to fight for what you want in life, that you have to work hard, embrace your identity and don’t be ashamed of being black.

With October being Black History Month, what black players did you enjoy watching when you was growing up and were there any particular players you saw as role models?

The players I enjoyed watching when I was growing up were Thierry Henry, Didier Drogba, Brazilian Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Samuel Eto. There were so much more, but the reason why I looked up to these players was because of their fearlessness, passion for the game, creativity, flair and most importantly the goals. This is what made them stand out from the rest of the players.

You've been at Grays Athletic a while now with your previous spell with us before moving to Salford, what does it mean to you to have such a good relationship with the fans?

Having a relationship with the fans is very important because they are our 12th player on the football pitch, they help roar us on to victory. Without fans, football is nothing, so I will always appreciate fans that come to watch my team play. As long as you give 100%, the fans will acknowledge it and cheer you for your efforts. It’s very important for us players to also acknowledge the fans and show our appreciation for coming to our matches. We are all one team; we win together, and we lose together.

Within your time within football, have you personally experienced discrimination, and do you feel football is doing enough to eradicate it and what does it need to do better?

I have unfortunately been racially abused early on in my football journey, this happened when I was an U15s player. One of the players from the opposite team made a racial comment to me and I immediately confronted him about it but then he started to deny it and got defensive. I didn’t let that affect me because his ignorance was his own downfall and black is beauty! Social media platforms, the FA and UEFA are not doing enough to eradicate racism from football. There needs to be serious consequences for any racial behaviour like deducting points from teams, paying heavy fines or just giving lifetime bans. These sorts of consequences need to be consistently implemented into the rules of football so that people will think twice before to open their mouths and make such hurtful comments. There needs to be more of an effort into tacking racism in order for us to move forward. We saw how quickly the FA and UEFA shut down the possibility of having a Super League, listing consequences if each team involved was to take part. They need to put the same effort into tackling racism if they are really serious about eradicating racism in football.

As one of our most popular black players, you are continuing to write your own little piece of history at the club. What would you like to achieve at the club as a player and how do you want to be remembered within football when one day you hang up your boots?

With Grays athletic I want to achieve promotion because I feel we have a very strong team and if we believe, anything is possible. For me personally, I want to make it to the top of the game, I want to move up the leagues and play in the Premier League. I understand I have a lot of things to work on in order to get to that level but with hard work and by God’s grace I will get there.

A lot of the younger players at the club will look up to you, how important is it to you to be a positive role model to them?

It’s important for me to be a role model to the younger players because I can help inspire them to follow their own dreams, with hard work and having confidence within themselves they can reach their dreams.

The club has a huge commitment to provide football for all within the community, how proud are you of the club and the work it's doing to promote equality?

I am happy with the work the club is doing in the community in order to promote equality and we must not stop. There are still people that still don’t have any education or understanding of equality and racism and it’s important to make people aware of it so that we can live in a better society for everyone.

Lastly, what would you say to any young kids who want to emulate you and become a Grays hero?

If you believe in yourself and that if you work hard, you can become whoever they want to be.

It isn’t just on the pitch at Parkside where we have talented black people showcasing their talents such as ‘Chuck’, it’s also on the youth training pitches at Lakeside and behind the scenes within our Youth Management Committee where influence is strong.

Our very own Youth Management Committee member and U10 Yellows Manager Anthony Adefuye has been doing incredible work to promote equality within the club by assembling an ethnically diverse team which is fully representative of the community our club serves and based on true Blues traditions of hard work and determination.

We spoke to Anthony about his experiences within football, the need to provide positive role models for our youngsters and how education is important in teaching children to be inclusive, to embrace difference and celebrate each other’s cultures.

Anthony, you've been at the club a while now, tell us about yourself and little about your own cultural history?

I am 37-years old and was born in Lagos Nigeria, I immigrated to this country in 1998 when I was 13 years old. Unlike most people from Nigeria my brother and I moved over to the UK because we wanted to spend more time with our cousins over here. Most Nigerians moved over for a chance of a better life, my dad is a proud Nigerian and at the time he believed Nigeria was the future for his kids. We came over to visit our cousins in the summer of 98 and while we were here, we got to thinking how we could stay to spend more time together. My cousin spoke to his Dad and he suggested we go to a school and apply to study here. I remember looking at a newspaper and seeing an ad for a school called Raphael Independent School in Romford. We rang them up and went to sit an entrance exam, my brother and I passed the exam and were given admission papers. This point was the first my parents heard of our plans, we convinced my mum first and got her to help convince my dad – this was the start of my life in the UK. Twenty-three years down the line I am a father of three children, two girls and a boy and I am happy to be the under 10’s manager of Grays U10 Yellow.

You obviously love your football; can you tell us about your footballing journey and how you came about joining the club as a youth coach?

Like most boys in London, I fell in love with football in the parks. I lived in Forest Gate in East London and every weekend and holiday I spent my days trying to replicate the goals of players like Dennis Bergkamp, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, David Beckham and others in Wanstead Flats. When I was younger there wasn’t a set up for boys like what we have at Grays Ath to go and learn the game, so we learnt by playing as much as we possibly could on the local playing fields and on the streets. I still play 5 a side football on Wednesdays and 7 a side football on Fridays so I am still able to practice what I preach!

My journey with Grays Athletic started in 2019 when my brother-in-law took over the team I manage now. I was invited to come over and watch one of the games and after the game my brother-in-law and I had an in-depth discussion about the team and what improvements I felt we could make. I gave him my views on what I thought he could do to get the best out of the team. A few weeks later he asked if I wanted to come along to help pass on my knowledge since the ideas I gave him seemed to be working. I agreed to help out here and there as I already had commitments at weekends. The more I came along to help the more I realised that we were giving these kids what we never had - an opportunity to learn and develop in a supportive environment. We were able to correct the kids bad habits which is incredibly important, I know I still have bad habits from when I was playing football because no one corrected me when I was their age.

My boy started getting interested in football the more I took him along to training and matches and as time went along, I became ingrained in the day-to-day work of managing a team. Like most managers would say, it wasn’t easy at first because I walked into a team that had lost multiple managers in a short period and the boys had to be taught the basics of football first. Two years into the role I can see the difference in the boys’ ability - we are now playing more as a team and the boys now have more belief in themselves. The smiles on the boys faces is the reward of all the hard work we have put in. Some of the boys are now being looked at by professional academies which is a fantastic achievement for them and us as a club and although we may lose them, we will carry on and bring more smiles to the new kids that join and give them the foundations to build their football knowledge.

Have you experienced discrimination within football and if so, what has been the impact on you and your outlook of the game?

Luckily for me I haven’t received any discrimination in football, I know it exists whether biased or unbiased.

Black History Month is incredibly important to educate people around inequality and teach children about being inclusive. What do you do within your team to ensure your children value each other, appreciate difference amongst them and to not only learn to be good footballers but to learn to be good people too?

My belief is that children pickup on their surroundings, no child is born with any views on inequality or exclusivity. In my team we are all family regardless of colour, gender, or beliefs - we train together, we play together, and we fight for each other. My belief is that if we show the next generation to look at all the things that we all have in common they will soon realise that there is so little that differentiate us. There are so many things we all have in common so there is no need to single out anyone on something as little as the colour of their skin or their religion.

Having black role models is incredibly important within society. Have you seen the benefits for a club like Grays Athletic in having positive black role models like yourself nurturing and developing children within the club and local community?

I believe for society to be more inclusive it is so important for children sometimes to have someone that looks like them or of the same heritage as them to give them something to relate to and can also be an ice breaker to make kids more comfortable in new surroundings. It’s also important for kids from other races and ethnicities because they get to learn and understand the difference in beliefs and culture and appreciated them. In the two years I’ve been at Grays Athletic I have witnessed the incredible work the club and volunteers have put into ensuring the Club is inclusive to all members of the community, the teams are more diverse, and some are the volunteers. My role as a Black manager at the club is a small part of a big push by the club to be welcoming to all regardless of race, gender, or orientation.

Having ethnically diverse people involved in the club enables it to understand it's community better as well as learning and growing together. What is it the club is doing around equality that pleases you most?

The club is involved in some fantastic equality work such as promoting International Women’s Day, getting more females within the community participating in football, ongoing work with Treetops School to provide positive football experiences for children with learning difficulties as well as the Rainbow Laces campaign which I believe is very important in supporting the LGBTQ community. No one should be stopped from enjoying the game we all love or being alienated from the community. The type of work the club are doing shows that our community are welcome to be part of the club regardless of who they are or where they are from.

Lastly, what do you think football at all levels needs to do over the next few years to eradicate racism and discrimination in football?

UEFA needs to take a stronger stance on racism in international football for a start. It’s sad to see the way some countries treat black players yet mostly go unpunished. I believe causes like Kick It Out are doing a great job in tackling racism within football in this country and the work clubs are doing to tackle online abuse is also a good start in stopping racism slipping over into social media as racism on various platform has become unrelenting. In the case of discrimination, we need to see more people from all from races, beliefs, gender and sexual orientation in different aspects of football, right from grassroot all the way to the board of premier league club.