The 2010 Digicel Pro League season is still some four months aways but already champion Joe Public has started putting its player personnel in place. The “Eastern Lions,” who under first year coach Derek King won five major titles in the just concluded season, have already offered 13 members of their historic winning team, new contracts. Their contracts expire either on December 31 or January 15.
After clinching the Digicel Pro Bowl title two Fridays ago with a 5-3 penalty-kicks win over Caledonia AIA, coach King said he needed to sit with club management, which includes Fifa vice-president and Concacaf boss Jack Warner, to discuss plans for next season. Joe Public also won the “Big Six,” T&T Football Federation FA Trophy and the Toyota Classic and was runner-up in the First Citizens Cup final.
By virtue of winning the Pro League, Joe Public earned the right to contest the Caribbean Football Union Club Championship, a qualifier to the Concacaf Champions League where the “Eastern Lions” hope to make their mark after a promising run two years ago. Having enjoyed a bumper season, King and his management team have already offered new contracts to team captain Kerry Baptiste, scorer of 48 goals this season, 34 of which came in the winning league run. The others players offered new contacts are goalkeepers, Colombian Alejandro Figueroa and Andre Marchan, Conrod Smith, Gorean Highley, Jean-Luc Rochford, Julien Landeau, Kareem Young, Keion Goodridge, Keyeno Thomas, Marvin Manswell, Seon Power and Trent Noel.
King and club management have decided against offering new contracts to midfielders Akil Guevera and Devon Leacock, as well as versatile defender Jason “Froggy” Springer and Kaashif Thomas. The contracts of Carlyle Mitchell, Daurance Williams, Hayden Tinto, Kareem Moses, Micah Lewis and Teba Mc Knight will end at the end of the 2010 season. There are also a few players who are currently on conditional contracts in Smith, Williams, Highley, Thomas, Mc Knight and Japanese import, Yu Hoshide, who has also been listed as a non- contracted player.