Hi everyone,

I’m currently away with Wales for our UEFA Under 19 Championship qualifiers.

We played Scotland on Tuesday and won 1-0, so it’s a good start to our campaign and hopefully we can build on that in our next two games against France and Lichtenstein.

I was honoured this week to become the equality, diversity and inclusion ambassador for the Barnsley FC Community Trust.

I’m happy to be even nominated for it, but I just want to make sure I can do my job as well as I can.

Hopefully, I can bring more inclusivity.

It’s important for me to understand the community and what can be improved.

There’s not a lot of diversity, that’s obviously something I want to improve and change.

I recently attended a ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ event with Donovan Pines at Oakwell, where we met local schoolchildren and discussed our backgrounds.

When I come down to events and see the community, it helps me in my work to do that.

There are a lot of stereotypes, especially in football, and I want to show that it is good to be inclusive and accept different religons, cultures and races.

Being a role model will be a big part of being a footballer.

Hopefully I can do that and inspire younger players coming through – especially Tamil people.

You’ve got to remember the sacrifices, your friends, and whoever has been there from the start.

I’m here because of them.

Whenever I’d step on to an academy pitch, I’d be the only brown player and obviously the only Tamil player.

It almost became normal to me – but that has to change.

Yoganathan was born in Trelawnyd, Wales and is of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. He joined Liverpool’s Academy at the age of eight before joining Barnsley’s under 16s in 2021. He made his professional debut for the club in the EFL Cup in August 2023. With the appearance, he became the first player of Tamil heritage to play a professional senior game in English football.

Since March 2024, he has played for the Welsh under 19s team.

Barnsley FC Community Trust Inclusion Officer, Jake Batty added: “We are really glad to have Vimal as our EDI ambassador. The dedication he has already shown to making a difference for minority groups is fantastic and we believe he will continue to flourish as the season goes on.”