SAMA­KI FE­LI­CIAN

Sport Cor­re­spon­dent

For­mer T&T goal­keep­er and an­ti-racism ad­vo­cate Sha­ka His­lop ex­pe­ri­enced a proud and sur­re­al mo­ment re­cent­ly as he was ho­n­oured at the of­fi­cial res­i­dence of the British Prime Min­is­ter, 10 Down­ing Street, in Lon­don, Eng­land.

His­lop was among sev­er­al spe­cial guests in­vit­ed to the Show Racism the Red Card Hall of Fame in­duc­tion cer­e­mo­ny, host­ed by UK Prime Min­is­ter Sir Keir Starmer in the gar­den of the icon­ic ad­dress. The event cel­e­brat­ed the im­pact­ful work of the or­gan­i­sa­tion over near­ly 30 years, pro­mot­ing an­ti-racism through ed­u­ca­tion, aware­ness, and com­mu­ni­ty out­reach.

The cer­e­mo­ny was filled with pow­er­ful mo­ments, none more mov­ing than a po­em per­formed by school com­pe­ti­tion win­ner Ne­r­i­ah Muhelele, whose words en­cap­su­lat­ed the spir­it and mis­sion of the cam­paign.

For His­lop, who has been in­volved in the move­ment since its ear­ly years, it was a full-cir­cle mo­ment. Sur­round­ed by old friends and fel­low ad­vo­cates, he re­flect­ed on how far the cam­paign has come and still has to go.

“Grate­ful for the plat­form, the peo­ple, and the progress,” he shared in a post on­line, adding that the ex­pe­ri­ence was both “mov­ing and in­spir­ing.” De­spite the recog­ni­tion and growth of the move­ment, His­lop em­pha­sized that the fight against racism is far from over.

The UK-based cam­paign, Show Racism the Red Card, was found­ed in 1996 and has be­come the coun­try’s lead­ing an­ti-racism ed­u­ca­tion­al char­i­ty. His­lop was one of its ear­li­est and most vis­i­ble am­bas­sadors dur­ing his pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball ca­reer, us­ing his plat­form to ad­vo­cate for equal­i­ty and in­clu­sion.

The event at 10 Down­ing Street marked not on­ly a per­son­al ho­n­our for His­lop but a pow­er­ful re­minder of the col­lec­tive ef­fort re­quired to cre­ate a more just and eq­ui­table so­ci­ety.

His­lop’s jour­ney from pro­fes­sion­al ath­lete to so­cial ad­vo­cate is both in­spir­ing and im­pact­ful. Born in Lon­don but raised in T&T, His­lop rep­re­sent­ed T&T at the in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el, in­clud­ing as part of the coun­try’s his­toric squad at the 2006 FI­FA World Cup, the first and on­ly time T&T has qual­i­fied for the tour­na­ment.

At the club lev­el, His­lop en­joyed a suc­cess­ful ca­reer in Eng­land, play­ing in the Pre­mier League for Read­ing, New­cas­tle Unit­ed, West Ham Unit­ed, and Portsmouth, as well as a stint with FC Dal­las in Ma­jor League Soc­cer (MLS) in the Unit­ed States. Known for his calm pres­ence be­tween the posts and his lead­er­ship on and off the pitch, His­lop earned re­spect not just for his ath­let­ic abil­i­ties but for his in­tegri­ty and out­spo­ken­ness.