Trinidad and Tobago’s Under 17 footballers will face Barbados’s Under 17s in two warm up matches here this weekend.
Currently preparing for the Caribbean Football Union World Under 17 qualifiers, the National team, under the coaching of Dion La Foucade will come up against the “Bajans” on Saturday from 4pm at the Larry Gomes Stadium at then on Sunday from 2pm at a venue to be announced.
T&T’s Under 17 will face Maracas St Joseph’s Under 20s in a friendly on Tuesday at 2:30 pm in St Joseph.
“Taking into the consideration the short time we have had to get the team together, I think things have been going quite well. The building process is not the best as we would have hoped for we won’t be making any excuses and come competition time we will be putting our best foot forward with the best possible team,” La Foucade told TTFF Media.
He added that all players on the team, campaigning in the Secondary Schools League have been asked to refrain from playing for their schools from this coming weekend. Currently sessions are being held on Tuesdays and Thursdays and on weekends. Some of the players in the team out of the SSFL include Josimar Belgrave (Fatima College), Lynton Pompey (Vessigny), Ancil Farrier (Naparima College), Simba Aberdeen (Queen’s Royal College), Thorne Holder (QRC), Shevaughn Abraham (St Benedict’s College), Machel James (Fatima College), Matthew Cupid (Morvant/Laventille), Akiel Freitas (St Anthony’s College), Jerron McKnight (Cowen Hamilton), Ancil Bobb (St Benedict’s College) and Stephan Granderson (Malick SC).
La Foucade also mentioned that English-based goalkeeper Andre Charles, has been successful on a trial with the Chelsea Football club youth team and should become a member of the club soon. Charles trained with the T&T team recently and will be making the trip here later this month to rejoin the squad for competition.
The 16-year-old campaigned with Burnham Ramblers, a semi-professional team in South End. He spoke to TTFF Media, expressing delight with the chance of representing T&T.
“I just happened to be in Trinidad on holidays and I saw the ad on television and thought well why not go give it a shot. It’s just really an honour to be able to have the chance to play for the country after playing all my football in England so far,” Charles told TTFF Media. Having moved to England at age 4, he has also been following the likes of T&T’s English-based professionals. “I’ve seen Shaka obviously, I’m a big fan of him, and I’ve followed guys like Dwight, Stern, Rougier and the boys from Wrexham as well (Carlos Edwards, Hector Sam, Dennis Lawrence). I’ve seen all the guys from Trinidad playing in England. Now this makes the chance to play for Trinidad an even more exciting one for me,” Charles added.
T&T will face off with hosts Bermuda, St Lucia and Grenada in a round robin group phase from October 30 to November 3. Four CFU groups will be contested with the top team from each group moving on to the Caribbean Zone finals. Separate ties on a home and away basis will be played among the winners of the four groups to determine the Caribbean Football Union’s two representatives at the CONCACAF final qualifying round at a date to be announced. The 2003 FIFA Under 17 Championship will be held in Finland in August.