Ronaldinho hails Soca Warriors

BRAZILIAN World “Player of the Year” Ronaldinho has congratulated FIFA’s Vice-President Jack Warner in Zurich on Trinidad and Tobago’s qualification for the World Cup Finals in Germany next year. The Soca Warriors beat Bahrain in a two-match play-off last month to become the smallest ever country to qualify for the Finals. Warner arrived in Zurich, Switzerland from Tokyo, Japan where he attended the World Club Championship, and headed to the FIFA World Gala Award 2005 at the Zurich Opera House on Monday. Warner also presented the 2005 FIFA Fair Play Award to Peru’s Amazon town of Iquitos  which is situated in the middle of the Amazon. The award was given to Iquitos based on Warner’s recommendation that they be hosts for  matches during the 205 FIFA Under-17 World Championship in September.

The town completed the construction of a 25,000 seater stadium in the short space of four months and had capacity attendances for the three matches played there. This accomplishment made Warner proud and it led to  FIFA’s decision which was regarded as well-deserved. But the man of the moment on Monday night was undoubtedly Ronaldinho and Warner wasted no time meeting with the Brazilian after he received his award for the second year in a row. “Ronaldinho is by far a role model for everyone who loves the game of football and what a privilege it was to hear him say well done and good luck Trinidad (and Tobago) when I spoke to him after the ceremony,” Warner told TTFF Media. “He may not know too much about how Trinidad and Tobago plays but the fact that he is aware of us qualifying for a World Cup shows that people are taking note of it,” Warner said.

The CONCACAF president said he also expressed his regrets to the player on the late cancellation of a proposed friendly international against Brazil in March but is maintaining his hopes that TT will have further opportunities for such big occasions. “I’m the happiest man on earth— I play for a great team, I have lots of friends, people appreciate the way I play, they appreciate my club and I want to continue to give happiness,” added the Barcelona star. Barcelona scored a hat-trick to help Brazil’s Olympic team to a 7-0 win over TT’s Olympic team in a friendly encounter back in January, 2000. And Warner, since the draw in Leipzig, Germany has been getting the thumbs up from persons in all corners.

“I tell you that it has been truly amazing to see what qualifying for this World Cup has done for the country in terms of the recognition it is now getting. Everywhere I go and my other officials from home who were at the draw, can tell you that all kinds of people have been saying how happy they are to see Trinidad and Tobago in the World Cup,” said Warner. “They all want to know more about the country, they want to come to the country to see the people, the beaches the place on a whole, to experience the music and the culture. And I have told them that we have all intentions of giving them a full taste of what we have to offer both on and off the playing field when we go to Germany in June,” Warner added.