Former Trinidad and Tobago national football team captain and scout, David Nakhid, is set to participate in his first Hajj as a tribute to the 2006 World Cup-bound "Soca Warriors".
Nakhid, who spoke to the Trinidad Express Newspaper from Medina, Saudi Arabia, said that he was fulfilling a pledge made earlier in T&T's World Cup qualifying campaign.
"My promise to Allah was if Trinidad and Tobago qualified," said Nakhid, "I would make the Hajj. And I am here."
"I am very happy for the team."
At present, Nakhid is completing his Umrah which, for Muslims, is a series of ritual acts symbolic of the life of the prophet Abraham. He heads to Mecca tomorrow, while the Hajj begins officially on January 9.
Nakhid's relationship with the present team ended on a sour note, three months ago.
The Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) sacked Nakhid in October.
The Federation claimed to have fired their employee for "racial remarks" made on TV6's Morning Edition programme aimed towards certain sections of the local Syrian community.
Nakhid countered that the T&TFF were attempting to cover up the real reason he was axed-for standing up for his religion in a verbal altercation with assistant national coach Wim Rijsbergen.
T&TFF special advisor Jack Warner subsequently accused Nakhid of spying on his homeland after it emerged that he was offered a coaching job by Bahrain-the Warrior's final opponent in a two-leg play off.
Last month, Nakhid said that he refused to accept a Bahraini post before their playoff fixture against Trinidad and Tobago.
Yesterday, Nakhid confirmed he still had not accepted a job as Bahrain's youth team coach although he suggested that it remained a possibility.
"I have not taken up anything officially with them as yet," said Nakhid. "But I do have an advisory role with their Ministry of Sport."
Nakhid intends to first fulfill his Mecca pilgimmage and then return to Trinidad, in early February for legal proceedings against Warner and the Newsday newspaper for defamation.
He told the Express that, as always, he monitors events in Trinidad and Tobago and was interested in the debate concerning the T&TFF's distribution of World Cup tickets.
"I think it interesting that certain things are being exposed about someone who is always claiming to be serving the interests of Trinidad and Tobago," said Nakhid, in a clear reference to Warner. "It is interesting to see how the authorities and the people of Trinidad and Tobago deal with this."
Nakhid explained that, in his opinion, T&T could purge much of their ills by actively trying to fix problems rather than sitting by and waiting for them to go away.
"Are we truly a developing nation; or are we a nation who will always hide their heads in the sand and never confront things?" he asked, rhetorically. "Too many times, we are happy to let things be because we have three meals on the table and cable television and carnival. That is why Trinidad is the way it is today; because we haven't taken the opportunity to change things when they come around."