As he looks forward to his debut season in the Canadian Premier League with Pacific FC, Soca Warriors forward Reon Moore has credited former club Defence Force for giving him the tools to succeed on a personal and sporting level.
Moore has set a personal goal of winning the Golden Boot award, and he sees the Canada league as a stepping-stone in his career.
After weeks of speculation due to Moore’s absence from the Defence Force squad in the Trinidad and Tobago Premier Football League (TTPFL) top flight, Pacific FC confirmed the signing of the electric Sangre Grande striker to a two-year contract on March 1. Pacific FC also have a club option for the 2026 season.
After stints in the T&T Super League (then T&T’s second-highest level of club football), featuring a spell with Guaya United, Moore signed with Defence Force and quickly became a key figure in the Army attack.
The 27-year-old said the move to Defence Force completely changed his life for the better, and he said it was a tough and emotional decision to part ways with the reigning TTP FL champions after spending eight years with the club.
This will be Moore’s second stint overseas, as he also had a six-month spell with Guatemala’s CSD Municipal in 2022. Moore said the move to Canada will help take him to the next level, as he has the burning desire to play in Europe’s top leagues and rub shoulders with the world’s best players.
“It was a very tough decision for me and my family, because I think Defence Force is the club where I really blossomed as a player and as an individual,” Moore told Newsday on March 28.
Moore said the Defence Force taught him important values that will carry him through his life.
“For me, living in Sangre Grande and going to Chaguaramas every day to train, I think one of the things that will go with me or whoever is reading this story will be commitment, discipline and hard work,” Moore said.
“Once you have those basic principles about yourself in football and as a gentleman, you are going to reach very far in life because the skill and everything (else) will come after.”
Moore said, “I just want to say thanks to Defence Force for changing my life drastically as a footballer and also as a person. Most definitely, I would like to return to Defence Force to finish up my career.”
A relentless attacker in the final third on the left wing or the centre-forward position, Moore’s skill and work ethic have been on full display at both club and international level. In the inaugural TTPFL season last year, Moore scored seven goals for Defence Force as they walked away with the league title, to go along with three goals in the TTPFL knockout tournament as the Army completed the double.
On the international scene, Moore has made himself a key cog in the Soca Warriors’ wheel, and he is coming off a 2023/24 Concacaf Nations League A campaign where he was one of coach Angus Eve’s most consistent performers – scoring a team-high three goals in six appearances.
Moore’s final goal of the Nations League A cycle came against the US when T&T got a 2-1 win in the return leg of their quarterfinal clash at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo last November.
The US won the quarterfinal 4-2 on aggregate and later finished as Nations League champions.
Moore has eight goals in 26 matches for T&T, with three of those goals also coming during the team’s 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup campaign. He was surprisingly overlooked for the 2023 Gold Cup.
Now, he’s a squad regular, and he believes the team is on an upward trajectory despite a disappointing end to their Nations League campaign in the 2024 Copa America play-in versus Canada on March 23.
“When you look back at the 2023/24 Concacaf Nations League A campaign – on the back of the 2023 Gold Cup – you would say it was a success for T&T football on the whole. We have a lot of positives to take heading into the World Cup qualifiers,” Moore said.
He pointed to the changes he has observed within the Soca Warriors camp.
“I think the most glaring thing in the camp is the attitude and the willingness to work for one another,” he said, pointing to comeback victories against El Salvador, Guatemala and the US.
“There are some good principles in the young ones also. Soon again, T&T football will be a force to be reckoned with. We still learned a lot from the (play-in) experience. We are still pretty confident and ready for the World Cup qualifiers.”
The Soca Warriors’ FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign begins on home soil when T&T host Grenada on June 5. In the interim, though, Moore is focused on hitting the ground running for Pacific FC, starting with his team’s clash against Halifax Wanderers and his national teammate Andre Rampersad on the opening day of the season, April 13.
“It has been a warm welcome for me, and everybody is happy to have me here at Pacific FC. It’s just for me to get settled in as fast as possible and start performing.
“As a team, we want to win the league and participate in the Concacaf Champions Cup.”
SOURCE: T&T Newsday