Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 27, 2018 Sports
In the forward thrust to take Guyana’s football to new heights, Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Technical Director Ian Greenwood has disclosed that the new Technical Staff which would be led by Head Coach Michael Johnson would be working with the locals to create more awareness of understanding where their talent can take them.
In a recent interview, Greenwood noted that local players having made the national team believe that that is and haven’t been able to push on in terms of advancing their careers beyond these shores.
”The new coaching staff that we would have around them with their contacts out in the football, world are going to be opening players eyes to where football can really take them, so it wouldn’t be a case of we’ve made the national team and that’s it.
When we qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup it’s going to open massive doors for all the Guyana based players and also for the international players it would add another two years to their careers as well from the exposure.”
On the job for about 18 months now, Greenwood further shared that the way the team would be operating in Brazil will really open everyone’s eyes to what a national team should look like and how it should operate.
The flagship national senior team, ‘Golden Jaguars’ will embark on a two-week train/play camp set for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 12-25, next as the GFF embarks on qualification in the first instance for the CONCACAF Gold Cup next year but the long term vision is qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The FIFA Forward Project formerly the Goal Project being constructed at Providence, East Bank Demerara where the national body is constructing its own facility would be another plus with regards to continuous training for local players rather than just focusing on FIFA dates, Greenwood posited.
”We’ve got a new Head of Recruitment and Player Liaison Officer who would be also tasked with looking for contracts and opportunities outside of Guyana for our local players also.”
Expanding on the issue of players feeling they have reached their pinnacle once they have reached the national team, federation President Wayne Forde believes that it has a lot to do with the unprofessional environment here.
”When we look at the way clubs manage players it’s really not overly inspiring for a player so to most players, once they have gotten to that level where they have played for the national team, they stop dreaming.
Not just stop dreaming, they are not in an environment that imposes on them the level of discipline and professionalism that is so important to take care of yourself because you have players that would play a national game tonight and then they’ll drink six bottles of alcohol of some sort after the game and no professional player taking care of themselves would want to live like that.”
Forde believes that there needs to be a serious level of consistency as a fraternity in the messages that are being given to players and that’s why the focus of the federation is on the young players.
”Because we think we can indoctrinate the young players that are now coming through the academies to really understand the value of taking care of themselves, taking personal responsibility for how well they protect themselves and how they care themselves and how much that would contribute to their growth and the opportunities that they can access.”
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