TRINIDADIAN DANTAYE GILBERT will be presented tomorrow as a newly signed player at PSV Eindhoven, the top Dutch football club.
The Sunday Express was able to confirm that local agent Dion Sosa is handling Gilbert’s affairs and that the press conference announcing the newest European-based Trinidadian will take place tomorrow, from 5 p.m. (TT time).
Gilbert’s impending deal was announced in Holland by Rik Elfrink, a journalist at Eindhoven’s Dagblad, a daily Dutch newspaper based in the city of Eindhoven. Elfrink reported yesterday morning that just ahead of the close of the transfer window, the Presentation College schoolboy and former Trinidad and Tobago national Under-20 midfielder had been signed to a two-year deal with PSV.
“His arrival will be officially announced at a later date, ‘when the fire of the transfer storm has died down a bit’, Dagblad reported.
“It is not the first time that Gilbert can be admired in Eindhoven. The defender has already done an internship in the past. He left a good impression there, so he was added to the selection of Jong PSV (the club’s reserve team). He played during practice matches and showed to be valuable offensively as well as defensively. Currently, Gilbert still plays for San Juan Jabloteh from his native country,” Eindhoven’s Dagblad reported.
Gilbert was a W Connection youth player for three years, until joining Jabloteh as a guest player for a CONCACAF Under-14 club tournament, where he played alongside Jaheim Faustin. He was also a member of the T&T national Under-14 team coached by Stuart Charles-Fevrier, which included Molik Khan, Faustin and Nathaniel James. Gilbert was T&T’s joint-top scorer in the tournament, where they defeated Guyana 8-0 and also beat Curacao 2-0.
Last season, in the Secondary Schools Football League, he lined up with Presentation College and also played for Jabloteh in the 2023 Trinidad and Tobago Premier Football League.
His coach at Jabloteh, Marvin Gordon was “elated,” about the news of his signing.
“He is one of the best midfielders at his age, 18, coming out of Trinidad and Tobago,” Gordon stated. “His attitude to work is right up there. He is a good student of the game.”
Gordon continued: “The sky is the limit for Dante. I think, once he doesn’t get any injuries, he would be one of the top players for Trinidad and Tobago.”
Gordon said that prior to Gilbert’s departure for Holland, he had been contacted by agent Sosa and offered points the players had to work on. Gordon said that he was confident that Gilbert would be signed, given where the Gilbert was as an 18-year-old.
Gordon added: “His attitude is great. He takes coaching instructions very well. I think the only weak point he has, and (I) said that of Lindell Sween as well, is that they tend not to work as hard when they are not on the ball.”
Jabloteh manager Phillip Fraser was also thrilled that the player was going to Europe and said that it would serve to inspire other youngsters from the club and throughout Trinidad and Tobago.
“Dantaye Gilbert was one who really used to do the extra work,” Fraser said.
PSV Eindhoven have been champions of the Dutch league, the Eredivisie, 24 times and also won Europe’s top club competition, the old European Cup in 1988 as well as the UEFA Cup in 1978.
SOURCE: T&T Express