The former Wolverhampton schoolboy leading the Black Footballers Partnership alongside Premier League hero

And alongside him, the former Leicester, Liverpool and England marksman who notched over 150 goals for clubs and country in a superb career.

Just last month, Delroy Corinaldi and Emile Heskey joined forces to take up an invitation to visit 10 Downing Street to represent the Black Footballers Partnership (BFP).

Their mission, addressing an area of football which carries so many different strands, was a strong but straightforward one.

To highlight the interests of past and present black players, and discuss how to bring more fairness, equal opportunities and community cohesion into the game.

Whilst 43% of players in the Premier League and 34% in the EFL are black, there are currently only two managers across the entire English professional system:  Former Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo at Nottingham Forest and Darren Moore at Port Vale.

Higher up the pecking order, across sporting and technical directorships, or in the boardroom, representation is equally threadbare.

And that is the message which Corinaldi and Heskey took to Downing Street, to pass on their thoughts, experiences and knowledge to help shape the legislation currently being drafted as part of the Football Governance Bill.

What makes their case a particularly powerful one is that they are not coming at the issue from a position of anger and resentment.  Equality, diversity and inclusion forms only part of the argument.   It is more about trying to improve the game of football, about ensuring that the best possible candidates for different roles, those with the correct skillsets and driving ambition, are being given fair access to opportunity.  

Most of all, they are coming at it from a position of data.

“Pretty much every aspect of a football boardroom is based around numbers and data,” says Corinaldi.

“Have we got the money? Where is it best to spend it? Is this player good enough? What is the data telling us?

“For us, at the Black Footballers Partnership, being a data-driven organisation helps us to tackle this problem through the lens.

“The data tells us that black footballers are not being given opportunities, they are not being treated fairly, not being allowed to grow.

“People focus a lot that we are talking about black footballers, but it’s about more than that.   It’s about data and evidence, and how we can all help make this game of football – one that we all love - the greatest game that it can be.

“The Premier League is the best league in the world, we have no doubts about it, but it could be even better still if it embraced the talent that, at the moment, it is missing.

“And ultimately, that is what we are aiming for, to try and open up that talent pool.”

Such an assignment involves a never-ending story of hard work behind the scenes - canvassing opinion, attracting support and developing alliances with past and present black players, lobbying organisations such as the Premier League, Football Association and League Managers Association, or visiting 10 Downing Street, where they were warmly received.

It’s a lengthy and complex process, but a hugely important one.  And one where the contributions of eminent and high-profile former players like Heskey is vital.

“I love Emile, he is one of the most humble blokes you will ever meet,” says Corinaldi.

“He supports us because he believes in the BFP, in our mission and goals, and he knows what it is like as a former player, and for all those he grew up with, not getting roles.

“Emile also has two sons coming through the game, one who has signed a contract with Manchester City and another who also looks like he is going to be something special, so he also wants to make the future better as well.

“To have someone like Emile speaking at number 10 about the requirement for a generational shift, and the sort of thinking needed by the government, is a really powerful message.”

Corinaldi is an ideal person to convey that powerful message.  He has a presence whose drive and determination, and experience and expertise, make him a perfect figurehead of the BFP, of which he was a co-founder.

Working with, and speaking up for, various icons of the game such as Heskey, Les Ferdinand, and many more, is, to an extent, something of a ‘pinch me’ moment.

But those former players need him.  His open and affable nature, mixed in with an articulate charisma and such an insatiable appetite for powerful change, is a forceful combination.

Qualities, and personality traits, which were happily forged in Wolverhampton.

“My brother sent me a picture the other day, of the rounders team from my primary school, Grove Junior in Wolverhampton.

“It is the most diverse group of people you have ever met.

“Blonde hair and blue eyes, brown-skinned people, black people, short and tall.

“Same as my comprehensive school, we were multi-ethnic, multi-diverse, and we worked well together and we lived well together.

“They were tough times, and down the road was Enoch Powell who had his own ideas of what immigration looked like.

“Growing up gives you the foundations for the future, and that diversity was all I knew.

“Black, white, Asian, with very little money in a working class community, all sorts of community went into that melting pot.

“People were properly writing us off before we had even turned up, but, for me, we all developed together, and it was amazing.”

Corinaldi was born and raised in the All Saints area of Wolverhampton in a single parent household with “a fantastic mother” and older brother Andrew, who also loves football.

There was a certain level of poverty to his upbringing, and the family didn’t have a car with trips out only to grandparents in Bilston or Whitmore Reans.  But there was clearly a whole lot of love.

And there was also football.  The game which opened Corinaldi’s eyes to the world around him, initially via the traditional ‘jumpers for goalposts’ or kicking against the wall outside his home, and then, with more structure, once at school.

“Andrew was a goalkeeper, and me? I don’t really know how to describe myself,” he explains.

“At Grove Junior School a centre midfielder, right wing, forward, and then off to Colton Hills, when, with all these other kids who had come from other schools, getting into the school team seemed a really big deal.

“We can all remember it, can’t we? That feeling of seeing your name on that sheet of paper, the timings, what kit to wear, sometimes even getting to leave class early.

“That was a moment for me, and I loved that being part of the school team meant you had to travel and get to know other secondary schools – it was like ‘young man meets Wolverhampton’!”

Corinaldi was already making waves within his education beyond his talents in the sporting arena where he was also in the rugby team and on the books of Wolverhampton & Bilston Athletics Club as an aspiring sprinter.

Several teachers at both primary and secondary schools both noted and nurtured his attributes and potential, and so too his peers, becoming the first black head boy at both. 

It was a breaking barriers moment, though not necessarily for the colour of his skin.

“For me, it was more the result of the work of those teachers who I feel blessed to have had as role models, and my fellow pupils, who saw me and felt I could step up into that position.

“And not necessarily because I am black, but because of where I had come from, and that community of All Saints.

“Both of those accolades were achievements for my Mum, because she was a single parent in an area of Wolverhampton which was difficult with drugs and all sorts going on.

“She struggled with two young boys, wanting to keep us on the straight and narrow when a lot of people were finding themselves in trouble, whether through their own fault or some of the police behaviour towards them.

“To become head boy was a vindication for my Mum for all the hard work she had put in, and for that community in All Saints.”

Meanwhile the football talent continued to shine.

Corinaldi became a regular for Wolverhampton Schools, recalling Joe Jackson as a contemporary of a few years older, and was attracting the attention of scouts, not just locally from Wolves and Aston Villa, but also further afield.

“There was an Arsenal scout who lived just down the road from Colton Hills, not far from where Don Howe lived, who suggested I give it a try training and playing down there at weekends and during school holidays,” he recalls.

“Going down to London was a big thing back then – and my Mum wasn’t too keen – but I’d head down on the train on my own long before safeguarding was really thought about!

“We’d stay in a hostel in Muswell Hill, sometimes go to Highbury, and I’d be there, in my really cheap boots, both pinching myself and wondering how on earth I had got there.

“I can’t remember if it was Paul Davis or Gus Caesar, but one of those guys gave me some boots, which I cherished, and I remember meeting Kevin Campbell, who was a player who had so much hunger, as he went on to prove.

“But I just didn’t feel that football was for me in terms of that sort of career, I didn’t have that same hunger as Kevin.

“I probably spent about 18 months travelling to and from Arsenal, but I couldn’t see myself as a professional player, and so I made my decision to leave it alone and concentrate on my A-levels.

“I channelled all my energies into using whatever skills I had got to try and better my life, and the lives of those around me.”

And so, at the age of 16, a new career path was pursued.

Corinaldi’s grandfather, who fought in World War Two and later worked as a bus driver whilst living in Whitmore Reans, was another hugely positive role model in his life.

“Watch the news,” my grandfather would tell me.  “Always watch the news and be aware of everything that is going on around you.”

It was a thirst for knowledge which has since taken Corinaldi into many high-profile positions which have helped pave the way for his current vocation.

One of his first ever jobs, well, after working in Olympus in the Mander Centre and studying at the University of Manchester, was as a researcher in the office of MP Diane Abbott.   He would later serve as strategy director on the London Mayoral campaign of current Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

In the consumer world, he was a Senior Public Affairs Officer for Which.  In corporate, a Head of Public Affairs for Wonga.  In the charitable sector, Director of External Affairs for the Step Change debt charity.  As a consultant, he has been a Special Advisor to the government of the British Virgin Islands.  And a trustee for the Terence Higgins Trust.

Through all those postings, he developed skills to understand and deliver at a high level in strategy, communications, governance, how to influence people and be in a boardroom and execute a vision and mission whether one that is aimed at profit, or bringing about change.

“Wolverhampton gave me the background for that, because what do we do in Wolverhampton? We get our heads up and we say hello to people, and are quite happy to let people in, to try and understand what the problem is, and how we can help.”

And then came the launch of the Black Footballers Partnership, in late 2021.

“It had all started in 2019, when Darren Moore lost his job (at West Bromwich Albion), which seemed really unfair,” Corinaldi explains.

“A lot of people were calling the radio stations, and complaining about it, but my background is ‘doing’, so it was, ‘what are we actually going to do about it?’

“I reached out to a political friend of mine, who put me in touch with Lord Herman Ouseley, the founder of Kick it Out, and various conversations started up.

“It then stopped again, because at the time I was travelling a lot to the British Virgin Islands, but then Covid came, and we couldn’t go anywhere, and I had time to build a strategy which was going to help black footballers, for when they finished their careers.

“At the same time, I was unaware that there was also a WhatsApp group of players talking to each other and sharing concerns at a lack of opportunities, and then came George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter issues.

“That stoked a fire on their side, and we then joined together, and I knew I’d got their seal of approval, when after going to QPR and meeting great guys like Andy Impey and Chris Ramsey, I was invited back to meet Sir Les Ferdinand.

“And Premier League winning captain Wes Morgan, another Leicester link, was among the many who supported us at our launch.”

So, what is it that seems to be denying former black players opportunities in the dugout or the boardroom? What sort of issues have emerged during and since those initial conversations?

As ever, with anything that really means something, the answers are rarely simple.

“We could see from the ‘sniff’ test that something wasn’t right, that all these brilliant footballers, who entertained us on the pitch, were not getting opportunities off the pitch,” Corinaldi continues.

“It then becomes a case of saying to the game, why? Why is it not happening?

“That is partly to the players, is it about you? Are you getting your badges? Are you well enough networked? Are you doing everything you can to be in the right places?

“To the clubs and to the owners, what does the data and evidence say about why these players are not getting opportunities?

“Why are certain managers, where the data says they are not achieving consistently, still getting jobs?  And why is the net not being spread to give others similar opportunities?

“And we need to be able to talk to the fans, because they are never fully educated about what is actually happening.

“They just want their team to do well, and when they do, they are happy, but maybe if they knew that there are other potential coaches out there who could come in and give them good football, or win more points, then it might be different.

“The responsibility is on all of us – like every organisation we need resource – but we need to push on from here.”

Sitting in an executive box at Molineux, overlooking the hallowed turf which has witnessed so much during 136 years of competitive football, still feels like a bit of home.

Corinaldi is a Liverpool fan, and lives in London with his wife and four daughters, but Wolverhampton will forever be that special place. It has never left his heart.

He is on a visit back to see his mum, which he has combined with some networking at Burton Albion, as he says, always pushing, always seeking to bring about positive change.

And so, what does success look like for the BFP? What results will show sustained and tangible progress? A question, which he acknowledges, is like a piece of string.

But already, people are certainly listening.  

“Nothing gets done unless we work in partnership, and when I meet most of the people within the game, with them perhaps wondering who is this guy that has come from nowhere, the entrance has been warm,” says Corinaldi.

“It is about building that network and team around us of people that want to do something, and creating initiatives where we can say we tried everything that we possibly could.

“We have different pillars in which we are trying to make progress, particularly around increasing representation, but increasingly people are trusting us, which is something I wasn’t expecting, but am really grateful for.

“Our core issue remains in changing the percentages of that managerial, coaching and executive representation, but as we have moved along this journey, and built trust with footballers, it has become clear they also need help with other professional requirements such as financial education and planning

“Football is one of the few careers when you retire twice, maybe even three times, and if 43 per cent of the players in the Premier League are black, what lies in store for them after they finish?

“They may try and stay in the game, and they may not achieve.  They may realise their role should be in business, or communications, or in the community, and that’s fine.

“But to deny them the opportunity in the only career which they have only known for 20 years is something which I think is unbelievably shocking.”

From here, the lobbying will continue, the building of networks and working relationships will step up, with a view to ensuring that black players have every opportunity to continue their careers within the game.

Corinaldi is not a huge fan of the initiative which has seen the England set-up make a ‘BAME’ appointment on the coaching staff, citing it as an ‘insult’ and believing that black coaches, in just the same way as they will accept losing their jobs if they are not good enough, would rather land those opportunities on merit.

It is why he has been heartened that the appointment of Brentford coach Justin Cochrane to Thomas Tuchel’s backroom team appears to have been exactly that - based on his ability and array of excellent work rather than ticking a box.

So, while the BFP are delighted to be involved in the conversations around the Football Governance Bill, there is also a focus on generating cultural change, on all sides, to improve black representation.  And ultimately, Corinaldi would love to drop the word ‘Black’ from their moniker.

It is still worth remembering that it’s not all that long ago that there were barely a handful of black players across the Football League, and, 50 years ago, there still hadn’t been a black England international.

There was a time when racial abuse towards those black players was as regular as it was venomous, and, whilst still rearing its ugly head from time to time, the game is clearly more inclusive than it once was.

A project is in the pipeline to coincide with next year’s World Cup, a tournament which, might mark ’60 years of hurt’ from England’s last win, but signifies 60 years of progress in the development of black players and players of mixed heritage, who have delivered notable contributions as part of teams which have made the nation proud.

Perhaps then, with the work of the BFP, the upskilling of players and a shift in culture from owners and authorities, more black representation as coaches, managers, sporting directors and in the boardroom, is the next natural, and positive, step.

“I sometimes chat to my brother about all this, and it almost feels like an accidental progression that I am in this position,” Corinaldi concludes.

“I wear these things uncomfortably sometimes, because it should be solely about the players, but sometimes maybe you just need to be that person who tries to help others move.“Sometimes those players don’t have the same hope that I have – a lot of them have been around for 30 or 40 years and feel that it has always been the same.

“But I genuinely believe that something positive will happen in the end, and if we can influence people to change laws then we can influence people to change their behaviour.

“I will never stop thinking that hope is important.”

The hope of an 11-year-old from All Saints, who marvels at seeing his name on the school teamsheet, and is driven to follow his dreams and pursue his potential, can be a very powerful force.