Jabloteh team up with Scot club

“This is the start of something very special,” said Kenny MacLeod, Celtic FC director, in an interview with the Pro League website. “Celtic are very excited about this.”

This announcement was made on Wednesday at City Hall, Port- of-Spain and, among the distinguished guests were Mayor Murchison Brown, Sports Minister Gary Hunt, Permanent Secretary Ashwin Creed, CL Financial chairman Lawrence Duprey and the club’s vice-chairman Wilfred Espinet.

“Success with success is great for us,” said MacLeod. “Jabloteh are the champions of (Trinidad and Tobago) and we are the champions of Scotland, and I think it would be a great partnership for the future on and off the pitch.”

The deal between Jabloteh and Celtic are expected to develop greater commercial value, youth development, coaching development and creating opportunities for the transfer of players.

MacLeod added: “We already had three Jabaloteh players (midfielders Khaleem Hyland, Lester Peltier and Atullah Guerra) across in March last year and we were impressed with their natural ability.

“The number of quality players continue to increase and you can see by the number of players playing in the English Premiership, in the Scottish League and I can only see that continuing in the next couple of years.”

Espinet pointed out, “we (Jabloteh) have always been on the forefront of football in TT and this programme will help us to continue that. It has been our programme all along but this partnership will now give our club and players better worldwide exposure.”

Mayor Brown assured that the clubs will have the full support of his office. “We can see good coming out of this for our youths with the help of San Juan Jabloteh, a well-organised club in Trinidad and Tobago, it can only turnout to be a success,” he said.