Central FC on youth mission

And the club declared that their priority is to develop the young players at the club into professional footballers.

Managing director of the club, Brent Sancho, said while the club would love to win trophies, the club was also very much focussed on development.

“It would be easy to just adopt an existing team to represent Central FC,” said Sancho. “But that’s not the way we want to do things at this club. We held trials across the region and are proud to say that the teams truly represent the whole of the Central catchment area.”

Sancho explained that the philosophy of the club is to recruit players at age 11 or 12 and feed them through the various teams until they reach the senior level.

“The cream always rises to the top,” he said. “Just as Barcelona have six or seven first-team regulars who came through their youth system, so will Central, and that can only bode well for the national team in five or six years’ time.”

Youth development manager, Kevin Jeffrey, said that building the teams had been a mammoth task.

“We’re in the middle of our reserve team season and to build three additional teams from scratch has been no mean feat. However, we were determined not to take shortcuts and lay a strong foundation for the future.”

The former TT midfielder said the strategy is not expected to bear fruit in the first season, as the teams will need to play competitive games in order to gel.

“As with our ‘senior’ and reserve teams, they will take time to bed in and we have realistic expectations,” Jeffrey noted. “This is a developmental year at all levels of the club, but we understand that success on the field will come our way, and once the formula is set, we will be recognised as a club who identifies and develops quality young footballers.”

Kevin Harrison, the club’s operations director, explained that while the club hoped to unearth future first-team players through their youth teams, those that don’t quite make it will still benefit from playing with the club.

“Maybe some boys will win overseas scholarships and of course we hope one or two might be signed by clubs in Europe or North America,” Harrison stated. “But those that don’t make it to professional football will still be able to obtain job references from the club.

“Aside from developing the boys football skills, we aim to install a sense of discipline, respect and responsibility in the players which will help them progress in life. We will employ our slogans “Shoot Goals Not Guns” and “Join A Team Not A Gang” to try to keep them out of trouble and focussed on becoming role models in their community.”

Pro League chief executive officer Dexter Skeene urged the Government to put more support into football. He said that tens of thousands of young people play the game and therefore it makes sense that if you want to keep young people out of crime you should invest in the areas that interest them. And Sancho also had a message for the Minister of Sport. “Central FC receives no direct financial support from the Government, unlike the other non-Government teams in the League. Despite that, we have worked far harder than other clubs to build pride within our community.

“We’ve assisted senior citizens and kids from the children’s home. We’ve distributed food parcels to the poorest people in our region and visited many schools.

We even step outside of our community and held career seminars at QRC in Port-of-Spain. Every penny that we need has to be raised via sponsorship, whereas our competitors receive financial support from the Ministry.”

At the event, Central FC introduced their youth team sponsors, Toyota, JZZ’s and SIS, and also confirmed that another Central-based company, Superior Readymix Limited had stepped forward to sponsor the club’s reserve team.