Former T&T captain Duane Muckette became the latest player who has represented this country to join the professional ranks in Europe after signing with Portuguese third division club FC Barreirense earlier this week. Muckette is expected to be unveiled as a new member of the club today.
The former Queen’s Royal College midfielder is a past member of Santa Rosa FC and is the second player from the club to make headlines in the last few weeks following the participation of John Paul Rochford at a training stint with Manchester City FC through the Digicel Kickstart program.
Muckette said he was quite thrilled to be entering the European circuit. He joins a list of players to have played in Portugal including Russell Latapy, Leonson Lewis, Clint Marcelle, Wesley Webb, Akudo Goodridge, Sean Cooper, Aurtis Whitley and Cornell Glen among others
“I am happy to be here. I’m delighted to have signed with FC Barreirense and very excited to play and see where this move will take me. Playing professional football has always been my dream and I am grateful to be living it,” Muckette said on Tuesday. Muckette joined the club on trial in early January and will now try to break into the starting line up during their current mid-season period.
“Since I arrived for the trial in the first week of January it has been a great experience. I think I have been fitting in well in training and with the players. The only struggle is not being able to understand what they are saying but I am embracing it as part of the experience. We are in mid-season so I just want to show what I can do and really earn my place on the team by playing well.”
Muckette wants to get on the scoring chart immediately and has his eyes on a possible national senior team call up at some point.
Appoo keeps beach soccer dreams alive
National beach soccer player Chad Appoo is currently nursing a ruptured ACL but has not given up hope on representing this country as the CONCACAF Beach Soccer final round of qualifying later this year.
Appoo, a former St Mary’s college player, was involved in the Lucayan Cup Challenge in Bahamas last year when T&T defeated powerhouse Mexico and Bahamas to win the tournament. He also has experience playing in the Swiss Beach Soccer League with top club Swiss Chargers.
Appoo spoke about the national team’s preparations for the World Cup campaign, saying “The support from the Association has been tremendous, they took us under their umbrella and we’ve been provided with training gear and equipment.” “The preparations have been progressive, the coaching staff is always on the look out for new talent and the players welcome the new competition as well. Hopefully, we can get some more International matches (like the Lucayan Cup) in before the next qualifiers.
“Two years from now I hope to have helped Trinidad and Tobago qualify for its first ever Beach Soccer World Cup. Also, for me I’d like to return to Europe and play in a couple of leagues there.,” Appoo ended.
Tough decision leaving T&T in the 80s - Hart
National Senior Men’s Team head coach Stephen Hart, during a recent interview, spoke about his decision to migrate to Canada in the early 80s.
Hart has completed his time at St Benedict’s College and had played for San Fernando Strikers and Texaco in the local league and at age 20 he was selected to the national senior team by then headcoach Alvin Corneal to prepare for the 1982 World Cup qualifiers. “I had a tough decision to make, I was selected by coach Alvin Corneal for preparation for the 1982 WCQ, at 20 yrs old and it was a dream.
However, I had a good job, but I also wanted to experience life outside of T&T. University offered me that opportunity and I jumped at it. Though I was having a good run in the top league at the time and scoring regularly, I have to be honest, I am not sure if I would have made the squad at that time,” Hart told Some Soccer Playing Canadians blog.
Hart who played seven matches for T&T, was asked to comment on his success with T&T since taking the head coach job in 2013. He replied : “I would not say that it was great success, but we had a good run in two successive Gold Cups, which were quite similar to when I was in charge of Canada.“With T&T the response from the players has been tremendous, considering the hardships they face and the well documented financial constraints faced by the Association. Another plus is that we have quite a few very attacking players with good balance.”
Hart’s next assignment is two 2018 World Cup qualifiers away to St Vincent/Grenadines on March 25th and at home on Match 29th.
•Shaun Fuentes is the Director of Communications for the
Trinidad and Tobago Football Association. shaunfuentes@yahoo.com