Braithwaite: Yorke deserves honours

IT WAS A well-deserved honour that was long overdue for the Trinidad and Tobago football captain Dwight Yorke. This endorsement came yesterday from Richard Braithwaite, Director of Development at CONCACAF and member of the FIFA Technical Committee. He said he was not surprised with the selection of Sydney FC striker for the top award. Yorke is the most successful player Trinidad and Tobago has produced and his list of achievements speaks for itself. On Friday he was named the “Footballer of the Year” by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF). “I was convinced from the start of the World Cup campaign that he would be the key to our success. I saw him playing for Blackburn Rovers in England two years ago and I realised that he had a lot of football left in him,” Braithwaite said.

Yorke, a former Aston Villa and Manchester United United striker was influential in helping the Old Trafford team in guiding them to the treble in 1998—  the League, FA and Champions League Championship. Last year he spearheaded the Soca Warriors to the World Cup Finals in Germany in June. “I spoke to Yorke a few times and I was impressed with his maturity and professionalism. Some people felt that he was over-the-hill and he should never be recalled. I had a totally different view,” Braithwaite said. He said that there was a person waving placards outside the Queen’s Park Oval protesting his selection for the first World Cup match against the USA on Ash Wednesday.. Braithwaite said in spite of the situation where people were openly expressing a lack of confidence in Yorke, only a few which included people like Jack Warner, the CONCACAF president and FIFA’s vice-president and former national coach Bertille St Clair, who were convinced that the Tobagonian was critical to a successful World Cup campaign.

He said Yorke had the experience, the fitness and more importantly the stature and self-confidence to help the team. “I was always confident that we would qualify for the World Cup. Whenever Yorke was not around, as in the last Gold Cup, the team did not play well and so it was important for him to play in every World Cup match,” Braithwaite said. As it turned out Yorke was able to play the full 90 minutes of each match and it was evident of the commitment and superb condition he possessed Braithwaite said..

He also said Yorke was and still is a very important example for young people in Trinidad and Tobago.  “We as a society  appreciate the value and importance of people like Yorke and Brian Lara and others,” he said. “These are young Trinbagonians from humble backgrounds who have conquered the world and represent the tremendous possibilities that lie before us,” the top football administrator said. He concluded by saying that the challenge now is to put the mechanisms and structures in place to produce world beaters in every field of sport.