Manisha Tailor MBE

Manisha Tailor MBE first became a football coach in 2002 when she set up and ran sessions for pupils at the Hindu primary school where she was a teacher. A decade later, she changed career from a Deputy Headteacher, to work full-time in football.

As a history maker, Manisha is the first person of South Asian heritage to become Assistant Head of Coaching at QPR Boys’ Academy and the only person of South Asian heritage to hold such a role in the English game.

Manisha has previously worked within the women's game as Head Coach and Centre Manager. She holds both the Advanced Youth Award and A Licence qualification. 

In 2014, she founded Swaggarlicious, an organisation that uses the power of football to engage with minority groups including women and girls in addition to generating conversations around mental health challenges, through her first hand experience of becoming a young carer.

Manisha currently delivers keynotes speeches, assemblies, workshops and workforce seminars discussing aspirations, resilience, anti-racism, gender equality, positive mental health and allyship.

In 2017 she received an MBE for services to football and diversity in sport. 

In April 2021 she authored ’50 Wellbeing Lessons for the Diverse Primary Classroom’ published by Routledge Education. A toolkit for anyone looking to create conversation with young people on difference aspects of mental wellbeing.

In September 2022 Manisha released ‘Dream Like Me: South Asian Football Trailblazers’ published by HopeRoad – a children’s book set to inspire South Asian children all over the world to dream big.