National Women’s Team captain Maylee Attin-Johnson isn’t just ready to hang up her playing boots at age 29. A competitive drive and a crazy passion for the playing could possibly see her sticking around in national colours for a few more years. But she is not counting out the possibility of entering other areas of the sport.
Attin-Johnson has already had managerial experience on a past national women’s youth team and recently completed a course in refereeing which she intends to further.
“I will take some time to rethink my future because I am not getting younger. The FIFA refereeing program is something I will definitely look into but I really can’t say exactly at this time what I will be going into,” she said after the 5-0 defeat to the United States last Friday in the CONCACAF Olympic semi final round qualifier.
“But I will be taking the refereeing a bit more serious because hopefully I can make a difference. I am still very passionate about the game and I am very competitive so sometimes that hampers me from exploring other things but I will definitely take some time to reconsider my future,” said the Central FC midfielder.
As to what she hopes to see in terms of the approach for the development of women’s football in T&T she added: “For most of us , we made the national team at age 15, 16, at a very young age but you are not getting that at this present moment because of the poor system that is in place at the primary and secondary schools level.
“There needs to be greater investment at the grassroots level so that we can get better leagues where the girls can start at a younger age and gain the experience. It is about someone believing in the women’s program and putting everything behind it in order for us to compete against the best of them.”
Attin-Johnson is a graduate of Kennesaw State University and Cumberland College in the USA and has been the T&T captain for almost ten years.