Ryan Williams was born on October 28, 1993, in Subiaco, Perth, Australia. His mother Audrey was born in an Anglo-Indian family in erstwhile Bombay (now Mumbai) before she moved to England and later Australia. His father Eric was British.
One could say that Williams was passed down his football skills through a generation, and the sport is in his blood, literally. Audrey played football first in England and then represented Western Australia for seven years after moving Down Under in 1974. Eric was a semi-professional footballer who went on to pursue coaching careers in Myanmar and Malaysia. His twin Aryn and elder brother Rhys are also professional football players.
After his grassroots training in Australia, Williams moved to England in 2010 and joined Portsmouth’s academy. A year later, he was promoted to the senior side and made his club debut against Middlesbrough.
He went on to enjoy an extended career in England, turning out for Fulham, Barnsley, Rotherham United and Oxford United across League One, Two and Championship football.
It was during his time at BFC that the idea of playing for the Indian team took root in his mind.
Indian law prohibits dual citizenship and the national sports policy requires only full citizens to represent the country. Even Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) and Persons of Indian Origin (POI) athletes must formally renounce their foreign passports before they can become eligible to play for India. But Williams chose to don the blue stripes in stride, giving up his Australian citizenship.
Interestingly, Williams is not the first of his kind. Arata Izumi, widely known as the Indian samurai, gave up his Japanese passport to play for his mother’s country 2012 to represent his mother’s country and ended up playing nine international matches for India between 2013 and 2014.
For India, Williams has arrived at just the right moment. Indian football has been trying its best but there has been a well-known slump for the past four decades. After the departure of Sunil Chhetri, the void of a right leader at the national level has never been felt more. Williams offers that pedigree, hopefully leading the country to more goals in the future.
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A true example of passion and commitment.