Beenhakker: TT must look to the future

He stated that such a move is vital if the achievements of the present Trinidad and Tobago team, who qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, are not wasted.

Beenhakker was speaking at a press conference at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Port-of-Spain on Saturday.

Commenting that the team’s qualification for Germany "must be the beginning of something nice and beautiful for TT football," the Dutch-born coach was adamant that "at the present I’m not very optimistic about it."

Beenhakker pointed out that the majority of players in the team are at, or over, the age of 30, including captain Dwight Yorke, fellow midfielder Russell Latapy, defenders Avery John, Cyd Gray, Dennis Lawrence and Ian Cox, as well as the goalkeeping duo of Shaka Hislop and Clayton Ince.

"So you tell me what happens when these guys call it quits," he asked. "We have to look for successors, because we want to continue to grow as a country."

Noting that, while he was a coach in Club America in Mexico two years ago, he saw a lot of work being done at the youth level, with Mexico.

Mexico recently took the FIFA Under-20 World Championships with a 3-0 win over Brazil in the Netherlands.

Looking at the national Under-20 team, he inquired, "What has happened with that team?

"We play games, we fail to qualify then we send the team home," he noted. "We have to keep the team in training for the Olympic Games."

Beenhakker continued, "It’s very easy for us to be totally focused on the senior players at the moment as they join in the road to Germany.

"I would like to ask everyone involved, in particular, (members of the Government), club presidents, companies and everyone involved to take care of the youth," he ended.