But 2018 has brought mixed emotions for this son of the Windrush generation.
Earlier in the year came the scandal of how Britain had treated some people who, like Anderson’s parents, had arrived from the Caribbean after World War II to ease the labour shortage.
Then the nation united behind an England World Cup squad whose 23 members included 11 players who were black or mixed race.
Asked about the Windrush affair, Anderson said: “You would have thought we were past it. 2018, those things coming up again, it’s unbelievable.
“My mum and dad came from Kingston in Jamaica to Nottingham because her sister had come a year earlier.
“My mum was a qualified teacher but she went into nursing and my dad worked in security.
“They’re still with me, one’s 89, one’s 87. They look upon themselves as English.”
Anderson is very much a glass half-full kind of guy and watching players like Jamaica-born Raheem Sterling take the Three Lions all the way to the semi-finals gave him special pleasure.
Anderson said: “I got caught up in it, the euphoria, the country all behind them.
“When I first started playing and watching football, the only black face I would see on Match of the Day was Clyde Best playing for West Ham.”
Anderson has just finished making a documentary with SunSport columnist Ian Wright about how he and players like West Brom’s “Three Degrees” — Brendon Batson and the late Cyrille Regis and Laurie Cunningham — defied racism to change English football for ever.
Anderson became the first black man to win a full cap when he was chosen by manager Ron Greenwood to play against Czechoslovakia in November 1978.
Anderson said: “I’ve never been one to shout it from the rooftops but it’s something I’m very proud of.
“Norman Whiteside always tells me, ‘You’ve got something no one can take off you. I’m still the youngest player at a World Cup but one day some 15 or 16-year-old will take that off me. Yours will never be beaten’.”
Anderson is in great shape for a man of 62 so it is hard to believe it was 40 years ago.
The energy and effort he once put into winning European Cups with home-town club Nottingham Forest now goes into his role as chief executive of Playonpro.
The company, formed a year ago, seeks to find work for ex-footballers and former elite sportspeople, as well as providing them with a network of support and friendship as they try to come to terms with life after professional sport.
A large proportion of ex-footballers split up with their partners within a year of retiring and it is claimed 40 per cent of players who earned up to £40,000 per week are bankrupt or close to it after five years.
Anderson is familiar with the suggestion that it is hard to feel much sympathy for a multi-millionaire who has blown all his money.
But he asked: “Do we just ignore it? Someone has to try to help.
“People get into trouble for different reasons and in the majority of cases, it’s not their fault.
“I was able to take my pension at 35 but the rules changed and now it’s 55. What are you trained for? Nothing, you’re a footballer. There are only so many coaches’ jobs, managers’ jobs, media jobs.
“The majority have to go out and find a new profession, another way of life.”
Playonpro recently formed a partnership with Redstrike, a marketing agency whose projects include an elite academy in Vietnam backed by Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.
The plan is to open more centres to train youngsters from emerging football nations and to provide jobs for ex-pros, with schemes in other sports to follow.
Finding new career and commercial opportunities is a key part of Playonpro’s work, for which it takes a commission.
But through its app, it also provides something the value of which cannot be measured in pounds.
Anderson said: “There are a lot of people who find themselves in dark places when their playing career ends, like Clarke Carlisle.
“When it stops, it’s a big void. Some fall into this depression they can’t get out of.
“You’ve been so high, you’re used to the adulation. You miss the camaraderie.
“The app is a bit like a self-help group. It’s a giant WhatsApp for sportspeople, not just footballers.
“We have cricketers — Monty Panesar just became an ambassador — rugby players, golfers, jockeys, former Olympians like Diane Modahl and Gail Emms.
“A great example of what we’re trying to do is Kevin Gallen and Steve Hodge.
“They played together at QPR but hadn’t spoken to each other for 20 years, found out they were both on Playon and started texting each other.”
And just the other day Anderson was contacted by former England team-mate Paul Mariner — now in America — who shared a picture from the late 70s of 11 players who recorded a couple of songs in a campaign against hooliganism.
Anderson is the only black star in the group. It is thanks to pioneers like him that, 40 years on, things look very different.
Source: Read Full Article