Warriors leave today

SOCA WARRIORS’ captain Dwight Yorke and the rest of the national football team’s foreign-based professionals will leave Trinidad and Tobago from today for their respective clubs. After six weeks in the local and international spotlight, the Warriors were keeping a low profile yesterday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port-of-Spain where they have been staying since they returned to TT from Germany last Thursday.

When Newsday visited the Crowne Plaza yesterday, none of the Warriors were in the lobby of the hotel watching the England-Ecuador match. Team assistant manager George Joseph, who was at the hotel to check up on the players, told Newsday that all of the foreign-based professionals were still at the Crowne Plaza but some of the locally-based team members had checked out.

He declined to give the names of the Warriors who were still at the hotel and those who had checked out. However Joseph said the players were exhausted from the events of the last six weeks, which included their historic debut at the World Cup and the grand celebrations at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Saturday.

Joseph added that from today, the foreign-pros (including Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy, Shaka Hislop, Kelvin Jack, Stern John, Cornell Glen and Kenwyne Jones) will start “filtering out” towards their respective clubs. He said after being in the spotlight for so long, the Soca Warriors just wanted some private time to themselves.

The 24 members of the team each received $1 million for their efforts at the World Cup. Yorke, as captain and for his inspirational role on the field, received $1.25 million and was named as a TT ambassador for sport. All team members were also awarded TT’s second highest award, the Chaconia gold.