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Trinidad recently qualified for the World Cup, but in order to do this, it took a lot of sacrifice from all the players. Many of them play for professional clubs in Europe and we all know how these clubs hate to lose players when they have to leave to play the qualifier matches. How many times have we seen clubs protesting and sometimes even penalizing the players themselves, either overtly or covertly. These players have definitely sacrificed and they were rewarded with a World Cup place. Now that we have qualified, the TTFF has embarked on a drive to find other players to actually compete in the World Cup. While I understand that we want to have the best team and obviously we need extra players in case people get injured, the latest announcement is disturbing to me. I have included the entire Trinidad Guardian article below since they don't use a proper CMS system and it'll be overwritten tomorrow. You may need to click the "Read More" link to see the article In this announcement, they found a goalkeeper that plays in England. He was born in England, but his father is from Trinidad and had left Trinidad 45 years ago. Where was this player when we were trying to qualify? He's 31 years old...where was he in the previous World Cup qualifier? They are now trying to get him a Trinidad passport and get this....teach him the National Anthem. We should be using players that have paid their dues? But, barring that, at least find ones that have shown some kind of allegiance to Trinidad & Tobago and have a Trinidad & Tobago passport and know the National Anthem!!
Original Trinidad Guardian Article (January 9th, 2006)
English-born goalkeeper Anthony Warner, who plays for Fulham in the Premiership, has been added to the Soca Warriors squad.
His recruitment was announced following a meeting between officials of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation and members of the T&T senior team at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London yesterday.
It was made with enthusiasm by TTFF Special Advisor Jack Warner and Brent Sancho, who spoke on behalf of the players present.
Team captain Dwight Yorke was in Australia, but was in touch with the meeting and fully aware of the developments.
The Scottish-based players were present.
Warner , fresh from signing a permanent deal with Fulham in the Premiership, expressed delight.
“Yes, definitely it’s a great step for me and I’m really excited about being given the chance to play for Trinidad and Tobago,” Warner told TTFF Media.
“After being at Liverpool and then Cardiff, before finally signing for Fulham, the invitation from Trinidad and Tobago was definitely another big one for me and I’m hoping that I can add some value to what’s happening with the football in this country.
“I expressed interest a while back, but obviously there were some reasons why I haven’t yet played for Trinidad. But now I make a full commitment with the move to Fulham and so on.
“I know about Shaka (Hislop), Clayton (Ince) and Jack (Kelvin) and it’s surely going to be good competition for the spots,” said the 31-year-old Warner, whose last visit to Trinidad was in 1995.
He is a former player with Liverpool, Milwall, Cardiff, Swindon Town, Celtic and Aberdeen.
Warner’s father, Clyde Warner, is Trinidad-born and migrated to England some 44 years ago, according to the son, who said his next step will be acquiring a T&T passport. Warner said he is available for selection for T&TÂ’s next warm up international on March 1.
T&T’s opponent,among other details of the meeting with Special Advisor Warner, general secretary Richard Groden and team manager Bruce Aanensen, will be revealed today following a second meeting in the morning.
“Right now we are teaching him (Warner) the national anthem and he’s fitting in well,” Sancho said.
“With respect to the meeting, it was a positive one and we were all happy that Mr Warner and the other officials were able to make the trip to come up and meet us.
“It was definitely one leading to more progress and we agreed that the main picture is football and the National team of Trinidad and Tobago .”
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