National midfielder Densill Theobald arrived in Scotland on Sunday to begin a trial with Scottish Premier League club Falkirk which arose through the efforts of Scottish-based midfielder Russell Latapy.
Theobald, a member of Local Pro League side Caledonia AIA Fire, got the invitation from Latapy last week after the former national captain was impressed with what he saw of the 23-year-old player and was then able to have the club put arrangements in place for him to go on a one-week trial.
Latapy is currently attached as a player/coach with the Club’s First team which gained promotion into the Premier League after winning the First Division last season.
He indicated that his intentions to assist in the development of players and without delay, he felt the opportunity for Theobald to try out at Falkirk would be a good one at this time. Previously current Swedish-based midfielder Brent Rahim was also attached to Falkirk.
“I’m actually really enjoying the coaching aspect of my job right now at Falkirk. It brings a certain satisfaction when you could pass on some of the knowledge you have acquired in the game to the younger players and they take it on board and try to make themselves better by using whatever they could pick up from you,” Latapy told TTFF Media.
“That is a high in itself, an experience I realize now that is really something like a personal satisfaction and is something that I can also get joy from in football outside of being just a player. When you can advice a young lad and he takes it up and scores a goal just by following something you may have shown him is quite a good feeling,” Latapy added.
As a result of that, Latapy said he still has ambitions of giving something back to his homeland.
“Football is what I have done all my life and I knew from early on in my career that I would get to this stage and I knew I wanted to stay in football. I wasn’t sure in what capacity I wanted to until I got the opportunity to go to Falkirk three years ago and I started to do the coaching. Now I know because of the satisfaction that I get out of it, what I want to do is management and coaching and definitely if that opportunity comes knocking from Trinidad and Tobago then I definitely will be looking to get involved. At the moment though the focus is on trying to help get the country qualified for the next World Cup and I am contributing to that from a playing aspect which is something that I have enjoyed too since I made my return for the last two games,” said the former FC Porto man.
Theobald received the blessings of head coach Leo Beenhakker before departing for the trial on a British Airways flight out of Tobago and will return to camp once required for the next 2006 World Cup qualifier against Panama on October 8. Beenhakker will finalize his team over the next few days and intends to start a live-in camp the five days before the encounter with the team scheduled to leave Port of Spain for Panama City on October 3.
In related news, Stern John made his debut for Derby County on Sunday, playing up until the 76 th minute in a 2-2 draw with Southampton. T&T striker Kenwyne Jones also came on in the 81st minute for Southampton after coming off an ankle problem.