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Mal Benning is a current professional footballer who has played for Shrewsbury Town since 2023.

He is the most prominent Sikh professional footballer – and is one of only a few Sikhs who are current professional footballers. Mal is one of only two players with Sikh heritage to have made 500 appearances as a professional footballer in England – and is the only player with two Sikh parents to have achieved the milestone.

Born in West Bromwich to Indian Sikh parents, Mal attended Queen Mary’s Grammar School in Walsall and attended gurdwara prayers at least twice a week. He grew up supporting Liverpool FC and dreaming of becoming a professional footballer. After a brief spell on loan in non league football in the 2011-12 season, he has spent the past 14 years of his playing career playing for clubs in League One and League Two. The goalscoring defender made more than 250 appearances for Mansfield between 2015 and 2021 and has also played for Walsall, Port Vale and York City. Mal won promotion with Port Vale in 2022, scoring the third goal at Wembley in the League Two play-off final as Port Vale beat his former club Mansfield 3-0.

He was subjected to racist abuse on Twitter in 2020, but stated that he had not experienced significant racism personally as one of very few Asian players in professional football. Of the 3,700 registered professional players in England in 2020, only 0.25% were British Asian.

Mal is a proud Sikh and is comfortable speaking in any format, including Q&As, fireside chats and keynote talks. His talks cover a wide range of topics including mindset, teamwork, leadership, success, resilience, entrepreneurship, diversity, racism, and Asian representation in professional sport.

Mal Benning | Speaking Topics

– Football
– Racism
– Social media abuse
– Finance
– Entrepreneurship
– Building a family business
– Leadership
– Mindset
– Focus
– Determination
– Resilience
– Overcoming adversity
– Being in a minority
– Work ethic
– Having a competitive edge
– Striving to be successful
– Being single minded
– Teamwork
– Consistency
– Diversity and inclusion
– Sikhism
– Multiculturalism
– Mental health
– Health and wellbeing
– Representing South Asia/Sikhs in sport
– Ethnic minority representation in sport
– Ethnic minority representation in leadership