Yorke is ‘Player of the Year’

SOCA WARRIORS captain Dwight Yorke is the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation  Male “Footbal-ler of the Year.” And he is the TTFF’s nominee for the First Citizens “Sportsman of the Year” Award in  March. The TTFF made the announcement yesterday, as the countdown began to the end of the year, and Yorke leading his Soca Warriors to a historic World Cup Finals appearance in Germany in June. Yorke, 34, returned to Australia on Thursday after a Christmas break afforded  him and Sydney FC teammates following their campaign in the  FIFA World Club Championship in Japan. The ex-Manchester United standout celebrated his biggest career triumph when the Soca Warriors edged Bahrain 1-0 on November 16 to become the smallest-ever nation to qualify for the World Cup.

Yorke came out of retirement after four years to lead Trinidad and Tobago against the United States at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain and guided the Soca Warriors through 11 following qualifying matches. He said: “It (qualifying for the World Cup) definitely has to be the biggest achievement for me on my return to the national team,” Yorke added: “To finish it off this way by qualifying for the World Cup which aside from all my other successes has been my dream as a boy, is fantastic and it is dedicated to the team and the rest of the country. “ I couldn’t have asked for a better year of football for all of us,” he ended. TTFF president Oliver Camps, manager of the 1989 squad of which Yorke was a member, added: “Dwight truly deserved everything given to him this year and all that he has achieved, and we felt it was fitting to name him the best player for 2005.

“There were several others who performed creditably like Stern John and if it were up to me I would name the entire national team as “Players and Sportsmen of the Year.” Like Camps, TTFF Special Advisor Jack Austin Warner couldn’t hold back his words of admiration for Tobago-born Yorke. “He was a wonderful leader and player for us this year and this is a man who a lot of people wrote off.   To see how he has transformed into the kind of individual he is today is a brilliant example for all of us to follow. “He left us in 2001 and many of us felt it was unfitting and unfair but he came back and he did it in style and with honour and that alone is admirable and fitting of this honour,” Warner ended.

Young Chris Birchall, a Soca Warriors member said he was delighted for Yorke.  “I’m not surprised he’s been named the ‘Player of the Year because he deserves all he gets now. He’s been a massive influence on me and made me feel welcome when I came into the team and  spoke to me personally before all the matches. “He gave me the confidence to go out and play and was always talking and helping me on the pitch. I think myself and Aurtis (Whitley) have learnt a lot off Dwight, and that has done us all well in the midfield. “I’m happy we got to Germany especially for Dwight because now he can say he has achieved all his ambitions as a player,” Birchall said.