Yan Dhanda

يان داندا

English attacking midfielder of Punjabi descent, born in Birmingham in 1998. He came through the West Bromwich Albion and Liverpool academies and played for Swansea City, Ross County and Heart of Midlothian, with a loan at Dundee. A former England youth international, he has said he wants to represent India.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
athlete
Region
South Asia
Identifiers
Wikidata
Review

Life in time

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The Colonial Era · The Contemporary Era · The Modern Era Contemporaries: Abbas-Ali Amid Zanjani · Abbas Kiarostami · Abd al-Rahman Badawi · Abdelaziz Bouteflika · Abderrahmane Youssoufi

Place in the story

    Unknown (unknown)

    Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

    Summary

    Yan Joseph Dhanda is an English attacking midfielder of Punjabi descent, born in Birmingham on 14 December 1998. He came through the West Bromwich Albion and Liverpool academies and played senior football for Swansea City, Ross County and Heart of Midlothian, with a loan at Dundee. A former England youth international, he has said he wants to represent India. 1 2 3

    Career

    Dhanda was born in Birmingham and grew up in Tipton. He joined West Bromwich Albion at the age of seven and moved to Liverpool in 2013, signing his first professional contract in December 2015. Injuries interrupted his under-23 years at Liverpool and he left without a first-team appearance, joining Swansea City in 2018. He spent four seasons at Swansea, then two at Ross County, agreed to join Heart of Midlothian in January 2024 and moved that June, and was loaned to Dundee for the 2025–26 season. He played for England at under-16 and under-17 level. 1 2 3

    In February 2021 Dhanda was racially abused on social media after Swansea's FA Cup tie at Manchester City, an episode reported across British media, and he has spoken publicly about racism in football and about inspiring British Asian children. He has expressed a wish to represent India, the birthplace of his grandparents, and holds an Overseas Citizenship of India, though current Indian rules do not allow overseas citizens to play for the national team. 1 2 3

    On the record

    The English article's personal-life section describes Dhanda as being of Punjabi Sikh heritage through his father, quoting Sky Sports: his father is Sikh-Punjabi, and his mother is English. That is family background — a father's religion and a heritage label — and no source names a religion for Dhanda himself. The Urdu article is a short bot-written stub that says nothing on the subject, and Wikidata carries no religion value. His faith is therefore recorded as unknown, with the evidence set out here in full. 1 2 3

    Sources

    1. Yan Dhanda — English Wikipedia
    2. Yan Dhanda — Urdu Wikipedia
    3. Yan Dhanda — Wikidata Q56043350
    Cite this page

    islam.museum contributors. “Yan Dhanda”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/yan-dhanda/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.

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