Former Trinidad and Tobago national football team captain David Nakhid is still waiting on a job with the Bahrain Football Association (BFA), but revealed his intrigue in political life yesterday afternoon.
Nakhid is in Trinidad to pursue legal action for slander against FIFA vice-president and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) special adviser Jack Warner and Newsday newspaper for denouncing him as a "traitor" last October.
Warner's allegation was made in the build-up to last year's World Cup Play Off fixture against Bahrain.
However, Nakhid-a two-time Caribbean Player of the Year-is also contemplating serving the land of his birth in a new capacity.
On the same afternoon that former Olympic sprint star, Ato Boldon, was unveiled as a United National Congress (UNC) senator, Nakhid said he too would relish a political mandate.
"I would love one day to be in a position politically to do something for my country," Nakhid told the Express. "I think what people know about me and my strength is that I am a man of integrity who cannot be bought or sold.
"They know that I am also a man with no particular personal agendas who is not just looking to get paid."
Nakhid is unlikely to appear on a UNC or People's National Movement (PNM) platform, though, after suggesting that both parties had "failed the country" by their inability to stamp out corruption.
He was especially dismissive of the opposition party.
"The people within a party make the party and its image," he said. "If you look at (leading UNC members) Basdeo Panday and Jack Warner and their track records, you are left with no choice.
"I would love to offer an alternative although I know it is difficult for Trinidadians to think outside the box and accept someone as an independent member."
At present, Nakhid is trying to learn more about Movement for National Development (MND) leader Garvin Nicholas, although he is still uncertain whether he would meet him.
In the interim, he is enjoying the opportunity of a vacation in his homeland.
Nakhid said things were in place for his new job as Bahrain's national youth team coach but explained that no appointment will be made until after the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
"Right now, the (Bahrain) senior team is trying to qualify for the Asian Cup," said Nakhid, "and they are concentrating all their efforts on that. If everything goes okay, though, I will start after the World Cup."
Nakhid, who participated in Trinidad and Tobago's successful World Cup campaign as a player, assistant coach and scout before being fired last October, will go to Germany with his three sons-Jamal (13), Ja'afar (11) and Ali-Kazim (6)-as a supporter.