Coach St Clair wants Yorke back

LONDON: Trinidad and Tobago football coach Bertille St Clair wants Birmingham City’s Dwight Yorke to end his international exile and help the Caribbean island’s final push to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. Former Manchester United and Aston Villa striker Yorke has not played competitively for the national side since 2001, and St Clair is desperate to convince him to return to the fold. The coach, in Britain to monitor his English-based players, has steered the Caribbean side through to the third and final qualifying stage for World Cup and is calling on Yorke to return for a shot at glory.

“He’s been unhappy with his treatment in the past, but the country needs him now,” St Clair said. “He was my protege —  from age six Dwight belonged to my academy. When Villa toured in Trinidad they spotted him and he had trials with Aston Villa at 17. “I then got ?12,000 (US $23,220) for Dwight Yorke, while Villa got ?12 million (US $23.22 million),” he told the English Football Association’s website, referring to Yorke’s move from Villa to Old Trafford. “But money wasn’t a problem...all I wanted was to get the young man out.” St Clair, sacked in 2000 after losing in the semi-finals of the Gold Cup, returned as national coach earlier this year. Trinidad and Tobago have never qualified for a World Cup and they kick-off the third stage of qualifying with a clash against the United States in February.

Mexico, Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica make up the six-nation qualification group. Trinidad and Tobago have never beaten the US at senior level before and St Clair hopes some tips he has picked up in England will help him break that jinx.  “We are going to have a nutritionist,” he said. “Some of the guys only want to eat chicken and chips.” Three nations from the group will earn automatic qualification for the tournament in Germany while one will enter a play-off.