Swigging from a bottle of German beer, a St George's Cross flag draped around his shoulders and his face painted red and white, Shahzad Iqbal looks like millions of other England fans caught up in World Cup fever. However, while most of the 70,000 England supporters in Germany are white, Iqbal is one of a small but growing number of British Asians who are demonstrating their patriotism and love of football by watching the team's bid for glory.
The 32-year-old international business consultant travelled to Nuremberg last week with his friend, Amjad Khan, a north London GP, to cheer England on in their laboured 2-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago. The huge number of Three Lions followers in the city included scores of other Britons with an Asian background lustily joining in the chanting of 'Ingerland, Ingerland' and terrace favourites such as 'Football's Coming Home'.
Daniel Dorval, also 32, is a Londoner whose family roots are African Creole and West Indian Indian. Outside England's game against Trinidad and Tobago last Thursday, he was carrying a St George's Cross flag and drinking from a litre cup of beer while he and his mates - all white - belted out a rousing version of 'Vindaloo', the England song that became a pop hit. 'I'm English and proud of it,' he says.
Iqbal and Khan are both British Muslims whose family roots are in Pakistan. 'The colour of your skin is just the colour of your skin,' says Iqbal. 'We just want England to win. I don't feel at all unusual being here.'
England's travelling support has become more noticeably diverse in recent years. Women, families, black people and now British Asians have started to follow England abroad, and in doing so are helping to change the all-male, heavy-drinking, often yobbish image traditionally associated with England fans.
Last week, a correspondent for Der Spiegel, the German current affairs magazine, wrote of his amazement while watching England's game with Paraguay in a London bar at the multi-cultural mix of whites, blacks and Asians all cheering on David Beckham and his team.
In Germany, by contrast, most young German-born Turks support Turkey rather than the country that is now their home.
Piara Powar, who is the director of the organisation Kick It Out, which tackles racism in football, says: 'You do see black and Asian faces here in Germany supporting England in a way that would have been unthinkable as recently as the 1998 World Cup in France or the 2000 European Championships in Holland and Belgium. The much more mixed demographic of the England support began at the 2002 World Cup, and it was also noticeable at Euro 2004 in Portugal.
'I welcome it, because it helps soften the aggressive nationalistic white English identity of England football fans, which many people find uncomfortable.'
The FA has recently held focus groups seeking the views of black and Asian fans and non-fans, including some British Asian women from Preston, and taken them to pre-World Cup friendly matches in an effort to attract a more culturally mixed, and representative, crowd to England games.