Did you know Jimmy Carter was the first British Asian to play in the Premier League?You could well know that fact by now, truth be told. While the former Liverpool wingers heritage might have gone unnoticed during his time at Anfield and in the formative years of the Premiership with Arsenal, it has become widely-recognised in recent years.One of Kenny Dalglishs final signings when signing from Millwall in an £800k deal in January 1991, Carter, who is half-Indian, would sign for the Gunners the following October with his first full season at Highbury proving to be that inaugural Premier League campaign of 1992/93.The winger did not have to wait long to make his first appearance in the revamped top-flight either, starting Arsenals second game of the season as they lost 1-0 away at Blackburn Rovers.Yet, in the 29 years that have followed, only four players of South Asian heritage have followed in his footsteps and played in the Premier League - Neil Taylor, Michael Chopra, Hamza Choudhury and Zesh Rehman.READ MORE: "The only problem is" - Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp drops fresh hint over his futureDespite British Asians accounting for 7% (roughly 3.5m) of the whole UK population, just 0.25% of professional footballers are from a British Asian background.Would such a number now be different if Carters heritage had been realised during the peak of his playing days or if he had had British Asian role-models of his own to look up to on the football pitch when first making his way in the game? Its impossible to say.But the 55-year-old does know that if it wasnt for his Indian father, he wouldnt have been able to enjoy such a career himself.There werent the role-models to look up to. I was just a young kid with slighter darker skin than everyone else who had a dream of playing football, he recalled to the ECHO in an exclusive interview during South Asian Heritage month.It was a different time and it was a different time on the terraces as well. I started playing for Millwall in the 1987/88 season. The terraces were a totally different place. There are still issues which rear their head on social media, but back then it was a different place. There werent many British Asians playing football and historically I think that came down to parents not encouraging their children to follow their dream and to perhaps concentrate more on their studies and education and a more firm, stable career as opposed to even contemplating any of their children going into professional sport at a time when society was very different. You can understand where they were coming from, but my dad was massively into sport. He was born, raised and schooled in India but he was a boxer in the navy. He had 46 fights and only lost one, he was bang into his sport. When he was bringing us up single-handedly without a mum, he was massive on sport and made sure we were involved in every sport possible from running, taking us to boxing clubs, making sure we played football - everything. He made sure that whatever we had a passion for, we were able to follow that dream. I guess if he had been like the typical Asian parent at that time, we perhaps wouldnt have been encouraged to go into and follow our dream so I have got everything to thank him for really. He was a little bit of a harsh disciplinarian but the rhetoric was that no-one remembers second place and no-one remembers the silver medallists. He would always be driving it home and was quite tough in that respect but when you get brought up like that, with a parent pushing you and making sure you do realise that you have to sacrifice everything if you want to achieve, looking back I have a lot to thank him for.He continued: It does feel great to be the first British Asian to have played in the Premier League, even though no-one really knew back then which was quite surprising. I think I slid under the radar a bit because my surname didnt stand out as an Indian-sounding name. Carter, were Anglo-Indians. I just think people maybe thought I had been on too many sunbeds. I dont think anyone made that correlation between the colour of my skin and being of Indian heritage. So I slipped under the radar and it was only in recent years that someone made reference to the fact, Oh did you know Jimmy Carter was the first British Asian to play in the Premier League? Arsenal v Liverpool 1993 Arsenal's Jimmy Carter is tackled by Liverpool's Mike MarshIt has got a little bit of air-time since and it has been recognised officially, which is great. I am really proud of that but at some point it would be nice to see more British Asians coming through.While it seems incomprehensible now that Carters heritage could go under the radar, being half-Indian and boasting an Anglo-Indian name, it is understandable how he could be allowed to slip under the radar, and why he didnt try and stop that from happening, at a time when the football terraces were a very different place.But the former winger insists he was no different to any other young footballer who dreamed of making it in the professional game, pointing out that talent outweighs everything else.And having thought he had missed out on his chance to make it professionally when released by Crystal Palace, he was just focused on playing and enjoying the game.Colour, creed, all of that didnt come into it one bit and I still believe that to this day, he said. I certainly still believe that even if Kenny Dalglish or George Graham, the managers who signed me, if, at the time, it had been more in the public domain that I was a British Asian, I dont think it would make any difference to them. They just looked at the football player and what I could bring to the club. Could I have made more of it at that time when I was coming through? It was a different time on the terraces. There was alienation and abuse thrown at players. My career started at Crystal Palace as a youngster. I went on to sign apprentice and then pro at 18, but I got my contract ripped up at 19 so I was on the scrapheap. I got turfed out of the game at 19 and found it very, very hard, near impossible, to get back in. Once youre out of the game, its difficult to get back in so when I did finally get back in, it was grab every opportunity I could. If I was going to start shouting about my Indian heritage - when it doesnt matter what colour you are to me if you can play football and have talent, that is what you should be recognised for - it was a twofold thing really not coming out and shouting about my heritage. I didnt feel there was any need for me to do that and make myself out as any different to anyone else because Im not and never will be. Were all the same, our parents are just from different parts of the globe. And because I had such a tough time getting to that point where I finally got myself back into football, again I just didnt feel it was something I needed to do because my main focus was staying in football and trying to make my name at Millwall Football Club. My dream was always to be a professional footballer and to also play for the very best and thankfully that dream came true.While Carters heritage might have often gone under the radar once he turned professional, it was a different story when he was coming up through the youth ranks and, inevitably, he was on the receiving end of racist abuse, again explaining why he didnt volunteer his roots more into the public eye.Yet such abuse would only spur him on more with it impossible to extinguish his burning desire to make it professional.The one good thing about playing in the eighties and early nineties was there wasnt social media around so we didnt have to contend with any of that, he recalled. But what you did have was abuse from the terraces. The likes of, going back to the seventies, Cyril Regis and Laurie Cunningham had incredible, incredible abuse to deal with and to a degree the second generation coming through, the likes of John Barnes and Ian Wright. Must-read Liverpool FC newsOf course there weren't any South Asian players out there but if they were around coming through at the time they would have got the same abuse if not worse. Up and down the country, particularly away games, youd get the abuse. Obviously playing on the wing, I was right by the touchline! But Ive always been tough-skinned and Ive always felt, even when I was playing district football for Hackney and Id get players coming up to me trying to kick me all over the park and give me racial abuse, I would never, ever come back to them verbally. It was always my way to try and humiliate them on the pitch and make the manager take them off. And then when they bring the new left-back on, make sure he comes off after 10-15 minutes as well! That was the way I dealt with it, it always spurred me on, even when I was 12, 13 and 14 playing district football and getting abused by other players. It wasnt nice and sometimes my dad was on the touchline and hed hear it. If my dad wasnt on the touchline and I got abused, not once would I go home and say, Dad, I got racially abused, or I got called the P word or an Indian this or an Indian that. I would never go back and tell him because I knew he would be so upset that it was because of the colour of his skin that I have the colour of my skin and that his son is now being racially abused on a football pitch when it shouldnt be. I knew how much it would hurt him so never, ever took it home with me. I was always dealt with that internally and personally. The way I dealt with it was going out there and trying to humiliate the opposition. He continued: When I broke into professional football and I got abuse up and the down the country, at times because it wasnt all the time, when I did the way I would react was to try and put in such a good performance that they would go home and try and change the perception of that minor few who were abusing me on the terraces. I wanted to make them think, You know what, fair play to Carter. We gave him dogs abuse today but he stood up, puffed his chest out and played the game with great dignity. I think that was the way I always wanted to approach. Fighting back verbally or any hand gestures, I think that just plays into the hands of the minority and the mindset of those individuals. If you go the other way, you can sort of educate them in a different manner and they go away perhaps thinking they were in the wrong because of the way you reacted to them giving you dogs abuse.While Carters heritage might not have well-known during his playing days, his pride in his Indian roots is evident. And his fathers story in coming to England and then fighting for custody of Carter and his younger brother is inspiring.I am really, really proud of my heritage. It means everything really. It really does, he said. One of my fore-fathers would have been summoned over from the UK and headed out to India in the 17th or 18th century. He met an Indian lady, which was the same for many around that time who went from England to India. When they married Indian ladies, thats where the Anglo-Indian race came about. My father was born and raised in India and was fairly dark-skinned but always had that name Carter and was Anglo-Indian. He came across from India. He was orphaned at 14, went into the Indian Merchant Navy and sailed the seas and eventually came onshore to the UK. He came to this country in his early-twenties, got married to an English lady and it didnt work out, but he had two young boys and he brought us up from little kids. He was adamant he was going to go for custody of us two boys. I was about 18 months, my brother was just born. I think we went into care for a little while as the courts sorted things out but he eventually got custody and brought us up from little kids. We were essentially brought up as little Indian boys in London, in a rough part of London, Hackney. All I ever wanted to do was make my father proud. Ive got a real connection with my past and I owe my dad everything in terms of how he brought us up. He continued: The South Asian heritage, the Indian heritage, will always be a part of me. I had the skin colour, its passed down through generations. My children are probably two shades lighter than me, they have olive skin. My granddaughter again a little lighter because its coming through generations. Weve all got that tinge. My boys are really interested in it. Both havent been to India and I really want to take them out there to show them where my dad was raised and where he went to school. He went to quite an affluent Indian school called La Martiniere College, which is probably on a par to Eton. Its in Lucknow in Northern India, he was privately educated. I want to take the boys there. Ive not even been to Lucknow, Ive been to Mumbai and Delhi through football in the last six or seven years. It means everything, its part of me.Jimmy Carter of LiverpoolWhen I step foot in India, its a sense of, not belonging so much but knowing where I originated from. When I touch down and am on Indian soil, I am not there as a tourist or a visitor. I do know that my DNA, somewhere in that big, large, expansive country, is where I originated from. I think its fantastic that my father was able to bring us up and give us everything that he ever could. We know that we were never brought up with a silver spoon but that was part of the burning desire to want to go and achieve and I wouldnt have had it any other way. While Carter might boast a different heritage to the majority of professional footballers past and present in this country, his burning desire to make the grade and emerge from his working class background is not dissimilar to the stories of any young player growing up in the seventies and eighties, with his father playing a vital role.There was the three of us, me, my brother and my dad, growing up in Hackney, he said. My dad was a very proud man. He didnt want anything, he just wanted to make sure we were fine and we were able to follow our dreams and aspirations. It was a tough upbringing, there wasnt much around financially. He struggled in that respect but what he did provide us was the principles and ethics of working hard and being able to achieve anything you wanted in this life. That is what we take away from our upbringing. I was always in the street playing football with my brother, in the garages by the flat we lived in, when I should have been doing my homework. There was no safety net for me, I only had one thing in my mind and that was to be a professional football player. Join our official Liverpool fans groupConnect with Liverpool fans from around the world in our official supporters group.Keep up to date with the latest breaking news, transfer gossip and everything LFC with thousands of Reds!Join our group for FREE by clicking here!He continued: I worked hard every single day. At night, my dad would call in at midnight and Id go to school with no homework down. And then early in the mornings, in the middle of winter, my dad would pull the covers off me at 6 oclock in the morning and say, Go and run around Clissord Park, which is a big park in Hackney not far from my school. Go and run around there twice. And Im thinking its pitch black outside, freezing cold, frost everywhere and Id say, Dad, why? and hed say, Because all your district team-mates are wrapped up in bed now. This is an ideal opportunity to get one over them. What you do today is in the bank for tomorrow. He was always pushing me, sometimes a little bit harsh but that is how it was. When I was up, I made sure I didnt cut any corner of Clissord Park. The only thing he would say was, On the way home, if you do see someone with four pints of milk outside of their house, they wont miss one! Youve got no milk on your cornflakes for the morning! Im not proud of that at all but its how we were brought up. We were little street urchins with a dream and I was able to fulfil that. Looking back, Im very proud that I was able to make him proud and really that is all I ever wanted to do.So what does Carter think needs to happen to ensure more British Asians break into the professional game?He believes talent speaks for itself. While some things do need to change, having gone that extra mile to make it as a footballer himself, he insists the next generation of wannabe British Asian players need to share that obsession if they are to stand any chance of changing their under-represented narrative.Its good to highlight the lack of and under-representation of British Asians coming through, he said. What I would say to that is if you asked any Asian player if they wanted any special treatment to get through then they would say no. They want to be judged solely on their ability and thats how it should be. We are talking about under-representation and eventually more players coming through to play in the professional game from South Asian heritage but, first and foremost, they have to be good enough. The players themselves have to recognise they have to be good enough. It might sound controversial but they still have to be good enough and better than the next man who they are up against. That would undermine the whole professional ethos and integrity of the game. Equal opportunity for British Asians is another thing. I think everyone would just want as good an opportunity to get into the professional game, and a game that most kids dream of, from whatever walk of life or background they come from. Thats all you can ask from really. Encouragement from the parents is finally now coming through. Historically it hasnt been there, that encouragement and support, but I do believe that has now changed. I believe there are now more British Asians who are playing football on a regular basis and there are certain Asian leagues. Yes, that is fine, but if you are serious about breaking into the pro league, you have to pit yourself against all the players in the country, not just alienate yourself and stay in your little, comfortable arena where youre not going to get abused. Im not advocating abuse but football is a tough game and you have to have hard skin. Youre going to get knocks and people telling you youre not good enough. The sooner British Asian players can look to branch out, if they want to take themselves seriously then they need to be up against the best players in their area, whether thats district, Sunday football or normal football leagues. They have to integrate themselves more into that side of things. He continued: I dont think there is any problem with scouting. I think if there is a talented white player, a talented British Asian player or a talented British black player playing in Sunday League football, standing out like a sore thumb as being special, that player is going to be picked up. So I dont go with that rhetoric that scouts arent looking at British Asians. I dont think that is the case at all. I think clubs now are so scared of missing out on the next best thing that they pick up players and if they have talent, they will showcase that and take them to football clubs. Sign up for daily Liverpool newsGet all the latest Liverpool breaking news, team news, transfer rumours, injury updates plus analysis of what's next for the Reds.You'll also get the latest transfer talk and analysis every day for FREE! Sign up here - it only takes a few seconds!Its a whole array of things that will help more British Asians come into football in the professional game. You might have to work a little harder. And if that is the case, then do it. Sacrifice everything and do what you have to do to get your foot in the door. Make sure once you get your foot in the door and youre working hard, that youre showing football clubs that you are serious about making this a real career for yourself. If you give absolutely everything, then there is nothing that can stop you. If you are going to be special and excel at something then you have to give everything. If you give everything to football and you dont quite make it for whatever reason, you can stand up and say you gave everything to be a professional footballer but it wasnt to be. You werent good enough but you can hold your hand up and be proud of that. But youre also young enough to then take up other things, like studies or other professions. Mixing it or balancing it and trying to be good at everything in case football doesnt work out, I dont think that can happen. Rather than a passion, football has to be an obsession and thats what I had. Even though I got thrown out of football at 19, I knew it was my destiny and I knew I was put on this earth to play football and to play at the highest level. Once I got that second chance, I was never going to let go. Having passion is great, but an obsession in something is something completely different. If youve got that, youre onto a winner.So how does Carter look back on his career and status as the Premier Leagues first British Asian player?Its always fantastic when you are the first to do anything, especially when it is related to sport, he said. The fact that I was able to play football and play at a decent level really does give me satisfaction looking back on my career.If youd told me that I would have had half of my career, when a little kid growing up, I would have taken it. To have represented Millwall, Liverpool, Arsenal and Portsmouth, and to still be involved in football now 22 years after retiring, is fantastic for me. I can look back with great fondness, great satisfaction, some regrets of course but I tend to want to look back at the favourable moments and the fact I was able to make my dad very proud when he was alive and the fact my children can look back on my career and no-one can ever take that away from them or my grandchildren either. I have a little granddaughter now. Shes too young at three years old to know what I did playing football but in time shell know. They will be proud as well. Its amazing what I did 30-years ago in my career will still mean a lot to many people moving on in generations to come.