Waxing nostalgic with Carlton "The General" Franco
Interview by palos, Transcription by Tallman
Sunday, November 27, 2005 at Carlton Franco’s home in Vancouver, Canada
Inducted into the T&T Sports Hall of Fame in 1995, named T&T Sportsman of the year in 1960, former Malvern captain Carlton 'The General' Franco had a short but brilliant career for Trinidad and Tobago from 1957-1963.
palos: socawarriors.net posse, we are here with one of the legends of Trinidad & Tobago football. The legend in question is Carlton “The General” Franco. Mr. Franco, welcome and it is a great honour and pleasure to have you here and I just wanted to say that I am thrilled to have the opportunity to do this interview.
The General: Thank you very much sir.
palos: I have never seen you play football because I am too young, but I have always heard about Carlton “The General” Franco. Where does “The General” nickname come from?
The General: Actually, it happened spontaneously. It was 1960 and my team Malvern was a finalist for all of the trophies; the League Shield, the BDV (Best Dark Virginia) and the FA Trophy and we had to play five games in six days. We were playing the FA Trophy match against TPD (Trinidad Petroleum Development). In those days they had a top centre-back named Jim Lowe. He was tough to pass and of course we had an All-Star forward line and they were giving us a lot of problems, especially a 16-year old Bobby Sookram. It was the first time that I saw him. After about 15 minutes I realized that Bobby could do a lot of damage. As the game went along, one of our links, Ernest Samuel (a clean player) got an injury. He suffered a broken clavicle. In those days there were no substitutions, you had to play with 10 men, so you had to make some quick decisions. I decided after assessing the match that the only way we could win this game is if I move from my role as the backward centre-forward to marking Bobby Sookram and call on Kelvin Berassa (who was one of the links) to play in my position. I think by doing that we were able to win the match. After the game, I read in the papers where “Carlton Franco is talking to the team, he is playing the role of a General”. That is how the name came about. Somebody must have said “The General”, or it could have been associated with General Franco too, the dictator from Spain.
palos: Take me through how you got involved in football, from school to club to the national team.
The General: From the time I was born, growing up in St. James, we played everything. We had different names for games. Cricket on a primitive level was called “bat and ball” and then when it was football season time, we didn’t have a lot of money so we couldn’t buy real footballs so we used to play with tennis balls. A bunch of guys would get together and we would play “backs and forwards”. A whole group of us would end up as backs and that’s how we developed our skills, playing with a tennis ball.
palos: Did you ever play both positions?
The General: Well in those days I used to choose backs. I was a defenseman and I liked to stop the other guys from scoring. My first introduction into any kind of organized football was with a team called Cosmos from St. James, but I couldn’t make the team. The guys who made the team were three or four years older than me. It was when I went to St. Crispin’s EC School that I started to show an inclination to being a good football player. Before that, I was a better cricket player. Going to St. Crispin’s just around that time, they started the inter-school competition. I remember that I used to go to watch the guys play, Gould, Brown etc., I still couldn’t make the team, I was still a young fella. Guys like Sterling Betancourt from TASPO ((Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra) and Lionel Cuffie were from that time.
palos: I remember meeting Mr. Betancourt at my home. I know him as a panman, not a footballer.
The General: He was a good fullback. By the time my turn came around to play for St. Crispin’s EC, it was the first time they had inter-school North-South and I was playing fullback. We reached the final, but we didn’t win, but they called me to go for trials. In those days, to make any team you had to go for trials, and I got selected to play right fullback. Now in those days, it wasn’t just defense you know, or fullback, it was right fullback and left fullback. I was selected to play right fullback in 1948 to go down to South to play for the Roy Joseph Cup. The match drew 0-0 and St. Crispin’s continued to be a top team in the inter-school competition. The next year I played left fullback because the previous left fullback was overage. He left school and they wanted somebody with experience to play left fullback, [laughs] so I had to learn how to use my left foot. We beat South 5-1 at St. Mary’s College ground.
palos: Be careful of what you’re saying. There are plenty South men on the site. They don’t want to hear that.
The General: [laughs] OK. That was 1949. In 1950 the captain of the team at the time used to play centre-half. He left school and then the coach decided that I was the guy on the team who could play the centre-half. Well the centre-half position in those days was like a centre-midfield now, the guy who is in charge.
palos: Kind of like a Makelele role?
The General: Kind of like a Makelele role, even though Makelele is more defensive. In those days there wasn’t any distinction. The midfield, especially the central midfield were attacking, like Allan Joseph (Sedley’s older brother) or the “Big Chief” (Ian Seales). So a centre-half in those days was more or less an attacking player in a supporting role. I was named captain and we won the trophy. That’s the first time I came up against Son Baptiste who was playing for South and I recognized that he was a great footballer. In 1951 I was asked to captain the North cricket team because I was also a good cricketer, I wasn’t just only a footballer. But I couldn’t play in the North-South football because I was a month overage. You’re supposed to leave school when you’re 15, but I happened to be in school and my 15th birthday had passed. They were very strict so I didn’t play in the North-South that year. So that’s how my development process started in the game; playing at the elementary school level and to a certain extent playing in minor league football outside of elementary school.
palos: After St. Crispin’s you went to Progressive. Is that correct?
The General: Yes, that’s correct.
palos: People always ask who is the first professional footballer in Trinidad & Tobago. You hear all kinds of names like Dwight Yorke. But I have heard something else a little bit different. Give me an idea as to what that is.
The General: Well after St. Crispin’s, a gentleman by the name of Freddy Townsend (the Secretary of School Sports) who always wanted young players to get an education, wanted to set up a sort of scholarship programme with a secondary school. He tried with QRC but it didn’t work. He then went to Progressive and that year Progressive invited about six of us to come to do an interview, but only two showed up, Ken Henry and I. They gave both of us scholarships. When we got the scholarships, we changed the whole football team around in terms of progress and success. We were so important to the football team and the school that Mr. Holder turned around and gave scholarships to Russell Latapy’s uncle, a guy by the name of Hunty Waldron, Everald Cummings’ brother, a guy by the name of Philbert Cummings and we basically built a whole football team around scholarships. Mr. Holder felt that Ken and I, particularly me, were the ones who brought fame and recognition to the school. So what he did…as a young man growing up, I didn’t come from a rich family…he made arrangements for me to get a certain amount of money every month (at the time that they were paying teachers). Now that was under the table [laughs]. So I was getting some form of recompense for playing football way back then.
palos: So in a sense, you were before your time because you always hear in Colleges League, they say that Gally for example was bought by Fatima. To this day you hear about a big player going to a school but he didn’t really pass for that school. Basically, they bought him. Now I want to make a distinction here because I am not quite clear. Was there a Colleges League in existence at that time?
The General: No.
palos: So there was no QRC vs CIC ?
The General: No. Well QRC and St. Mary’s played in the league with the first class teams in the TFA. TFA became TAFA , then they became the Port-of-Spain League, and QRC and St. Mary’s used to have a rivalry every year, my brother can tell you, every year with QRC and St. Mary’s for the Intercol… was it the Cow & Gate Cup? Well it was some kind of Cup. So those were the only two schools that played for a long time, until Fatima came in some time later. Progressive played in our own League but we always felt that we could beat those guys but we weren’t included like nowadays. In that time it was exclusive. St. Mary’s, QRC and Fatima and then down South it was Presentation and Naparima. Now you have a Secondary School League and it’s every Secondary School playing.
palos: Now before I go any further I would like to say that my mother always taught me that I should have broughtupcy. In our company here today, we have The General’s brother Andre. So Andre, thank you again for being present. Andre is silent in the background. He’s giving Carlton some cues. So you went to Progressive and the legend of Carlton Franco is growing. Of course you have the glory years with Malvern . Malvern was a big club with a lot of history. So tell us a little bit about your years at Malvern.
The General: It was unusual that I went to Malvern because most of the guys I played with in St. James went to Providence, Lloyd Skinner, Jap Hosang, Joe Hinds; we all played on minor league teams together. So the idea was that we were going to go to Providence. Ken Henry on the other hand, my bosom buddy, he started to play with some guys from Malvern, some of the older guys from Malvern, and they played with a team called Daysville and they joined him as a Colt member in Malvern. I don’t know if it was because of him, but for some reason I became a Colt member in Malvern also and I started to get these circulars (we call them memos now), that I was a member of Malvern and my fee was $1.50 a month. Ken and I were bosom buddies just like Yorke and Latapy, so we would go and watch Malvern play. Plus right opposite where I lived, I used to see a guy coming in a Malvern jersey to pick up his girlfriend to go to the Savannah. His name was Kenny Akal. In those days he was a top fullback for Malvern. I liked the wine and white strip, you understand. So that, together with being a Colt member played with my mind. I decided that this was the team I was going to play for.
palos: And the rest is history. I am a very firm proponent of the saying that “you can’t know where you are going unless you know where you come from”. That’s why I like to hear stories about what happened in the past especially with football and my understanding is that Malvern was one of the teams that implemented a new system in football. Please talk about that.
The General: Well that was my team, but before I talk about that, I want to say a little bit about the Malvern before my time. They came from the 2nd division and beat a 1st division team to win the BDV cup in TFA and they brought a style of football that people didn’t see for a while, very fast, very skillful. My Malvern was more clinical in a sense, more techniques, skill but we were having some difficulty between 1957 and 1959 winning finals and we changed our systems when Berassa and Niles came and what we did was we copied the 1954 Hungarian system with the backward centre-forward to neutralize the centre-half or the centre-back that used to stifle the centre-forward and that opened up a lot of things. We brought that in and that particular year, that’s the year we won three of the four trophies , that year we played in every final and that’s the year when most of us represented Trinidad. It’s called the backward centre-forward and that’s how I got the prestige for seeing the field and using the wings and going forward to KB (Kelvin Berassa) and Niles; you used to call them pointers in those days. But people always talk about the cha-cha-cha aspect of it. which was as far as I was concerned, wasn’t the main thing. KB, Clive and the other guys used to hold on to the ball when we scored about three or four goals and the crowd liked that. and people forgot, even the reporters forgot the real ingredients of the type of football we were playing and they focused on the crowd pleasing aspect.
palos: But that’s easy to concentrate on you know, but again it seems as if Malvern was revolutionary at that time. I’m sure I’m going to here from men from Maple and Civic Centre and all of those places.
The General: Well, I can go on a bit further about this system. They didn’t know what we were doing at first. Maple was about the only team that maybe had some thinkers. Obviously, those finals they beat us in; I don’t want to use any injuries as an example. The five finals in six days plus Berassa and Samuel getting his collar bone broken took a lot out of our style because in those days you didn’t have fifteen players, you had eleven players and no subs, so if a key player is missing, you’re in a lot of problems, but you have to give Maple credit for beating us to win the Shield. What really happened was that they neutralized our system because 2 individuals asked me to captain 2 teams on 2 football tours in 1961, one to Guyana and one to Barbados and to take some of these said players I’m playing against. While we were there on both tours we were having difficulty playing and I showed them the system that Malvern used to use, and after that we beat Barbados, we beat Guyana, we beat everybody. So they came back to Trinidad now and they knew exactly what we were going to do and that is how they neutralized our system and we weren’t as effective as we were in 1960.
palos: So Carlton, tell me about the three best games you have ever played in your entire career?
The General: OK. I have to think about this for a little while. I think the first game, number one, is the 1957 North-South. It was my first North-South, no it was my second North-South but the first Red Cross, the Red Cross is the big one. The game was going back and forth, South scored, we scored, South scored, we scored and so on. But I put North in the lead when Ken Walsh gave me a pass down the left side and I went straight to goal and called Cax Baptiste. I didn’t call him but he came out and I beat him in the left foot corner. Willie Rodriguez who was playing full-back, ran from the back and he lifted me up because that was my first North-South; and we eventually won the match. That was a memorable game for me, a memorable game in football. It was a perfect game except that we won on a penalty.
palos: What was the atmosphere like? Was it a sell out? Where was the game played?
The General: It was a sell out, in front of the Grand Stand. Thousands of people used to be overflowing on the ground. They were real exciting days. The next game, the second game I would think was another North-South game in 1963, just before I left for Canada. I was captain of the North team that was playing for the Hinds Memorial, the first North-South of the year at Skinner Park and the team was going through changes. South had some young players on their team like Bobby Sookram, Milton Seebaram and Allan Callender. They brought in a young forward line. We brought in Gellineau for the first time on the North team. Arthur Brown was still there with Alvin Corneal and Berassa. They had us down 3-1 at half time, we just couldn’t stop them. The only person who was looking good was Alvin Corneal, he was dancing on the left wing. Gellineau, it was his first game but he was trying to get going. Very significant was Joffre Chambers who hadn’t coached a North team or Trinidad team for over 10 years (because he was isolated). He brought back all these new ideas but the TFA was not progressive enough so they decided to put a coach who didn’t have the kind of skills as Joffre Chambers. Now the coach never lost, but not because he was a great coach, but it was because of the players. When we came in at half-time, Joffre said to me “Carlton, what’s happening?” I said “Nothing.” He said “South, they’re outrunning us. They’re beating us to the ball, but what we have to do is slow them down a bit. They’re going to get tired.” We came out and we scored 5 goals and beat South 5-4. That is another memorable game for me, as captain of the team, especially when the referee, the late John Alleyne who was also a reporter had an article in the papers the next day saying “North was inspired by the General” and he was talking about how I was directing traffic on the field, what I was saying to the players, unlike the captain of the South team whose name I’m not going to call, who just went through the motions.
palos: So, your third game now.
The General: On tour in Jamaica. I didn’t get into the first two games, but they brought me into the third game against a club team. I remember the goalkeeper, his name was Murphy and he was the Jamaican goalkeeper at the time. I remember that within 5 minutes I had the ball in the back of the net from about 30 yards out. That was the signal to the selectors, and after that I was never left off a Trinidad & Tobago team except when I was injured. So I thought that it was very significant. I thought the performance in that Red Cross game…and of course I played lots of games for Malvern, but ….
palos: But the North-South, you think that topped it all?
The General: Yes.
palos: Now during that time, I think Trinidad & Tobago went on a tour of England. But when I look at the names of the people who went, your name wasn’t there.
The General: It wasn’t Trinidad & Tobago, it was a Caribbean team. The Trinidad & Tobago team that went to England was before my time.
palos: So the Caribbean team that went to England. How come your name was not on that list?
The General: Well I don’t want to make any excuses, but at that particular time before we went to England, I was the centre-forward for Trinidad & Tobago in 1957 after I made by debut in Jamaica and in 1958, but I never really liked the position. I used to score goals out there. Now even though the centre-forward in the old system was supposed to wait for the inside forwards to bring the ball to them, I used to be doing the other thing because remember I was a midfielder, I was a centre-half, then I was at inside right. But we didn’t have a regular centre-forward for Trinidad & Tobago ever since Shay Seymour went to England. So after the 1957 and 1958 tours and they were calling for trials, I, and this is not a joke, I told the Trinidad & Tobago coach that I would prefer to play inside right at the trials. It was significant because Tyrone de Labastide who was sitting in the car next to me [we were coming back from a North-South game], looked at me and he said “Why Carlton, why? You have a sure pick at centre-forward. You want to rival Son Baptiste?” [who in my opinion is one of the great players in my time, great players ever] And because Son was the inside right at the time I wouldn’t get picked. So said so done. When they picked the team for the first game, it’s the first time I wasn’t on the first team. But the guy who they picked for centre-forward was a guy named “Chipsy” Mahon. He used to play for St. Mary’s, but to make a long story short, I was back in the team after that game. Another thing; I didn’t mind the fact that I was left out because Trinidad & Tobago at the time was trying to showcase more than one forward. They were trying to showcase Len Leggard who had come back, Son Baptiste, myself, Alvin Corneal, Ken Hodge, Dave Cabral, “Chipsy” Mahon and they wanted to see how many could go on the team. So I came in and I played in the next two games and to be honest with you I didn’t play the way I could have played. Now you have to remember there is a lot of politics when it comes to picking West Indies teams. So you have Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana...
palos: Barbados was playing football in those times?
The General: Yes. Looking for their players and the only player who could have gone from Barbados was a guy called Reggie Haynes who was a good inside forward and Jamaica had another inside forward who was in England. This was Anthony Hill.
palos: Have you ever played against Lindy Delapena?
The General: No.
palos: Have you heard about him?
The General: Yes. And then we also had a situation where Willie Rodriguez was playing cricket in India and he didn’t play at all but you have these negotiations. So somebody have to get left out.
palos: Now you have already mentioned Son Baptiste several times. So I’m going to assume he’s one of the players that you think are the best that you have played with?
The General: Yes.
palos: Give me two others. Your top two besides Son Baptiste.
The General: In my time?
palos: In your time. Is Son Baptiste your number one?
The General: Well I wouldn’t put number one and number two.
palos: Forget diplomacy, you’re on the hot seat now [pounding the table].
The General: I will say Son, Alvin Corneal and there’s a guy who I wished Trinidad & Tobago would have seen before he came to play for Malvern in the North, a guy by the name of Ken Hodge. By the time he came to Malvern he had suffered a lot of injuries and he never really played that much for Trinidad. He really was a good individual player, technique wise. He never really fitted in to Malvern’s team, but he was a dynamic player. I thought that if he came to Port-of-Spain earlier in life, he would have maybe changed his style, we would be talking about him much more than we are.
palos: Where is Ken Hodge from?
The General: He is from the East.
palos: Son Baptiste, where is he from?
The General: Son Baptiste is from the South. But Son…I know Son straight from elementary school days and we played for Trinidad together. We’re good partners, we’re good buddies.
palos: What do you think is the best thing about Son Baptiste? His biggest asset?
The General: His biggest asset is that he has good ball control, he could score goals but he wasn’t a great shooter like Alvin Corneal and he was very skillful.
palos: Top player you have ever played against?
The General: Locally or internationally?
palos: Anywhere. Let me make it easier for you. Name one locally and one internationally?
The General: Internationally, there was a guy, I think he’s from Suriname, Lagadeau and the best player I have ever played against locally is Son Baptiste.
palos: You’re still on the hot seat. The seat is burning up. Flames are licking right now. Who in your opinion is the best ever Trinidad & Tobago player? And you cannot be diplomatic because you are on the hot seat.
The General: Well I’ll tell you something, Squeaky Hinds, Matthew Nunes, Latapy, DeLeon all tie.
palos: No, it have no tie. It have no diplomatic thing. You have to pick one, including the General. Pick one.
The General: Let me tell you something. I haven’t seen enough about DeLeon but I have heard enough about DeLeon. I haven’t seen enough of even Latapy but I’ve seen enough to know. Dwight Yorke, I’ve seen enough. Matthew Nunes, I’ve seen enough. Squeaky Hinds... If I have to say the best player, I say Son Baptiste.
palos: Trinidad & Tobago, this little country of 1.3 million people have finally qualified for the World Cup in Germany 2006, a feat that I honestly did not think would happen in my lifetime. We came close in 1973 with the team of Gally and Warren Archibald etc., interestingly enough DeLeon wasn’t on that team. And then we came even closer in 1989, we all know the heartbreak of that one and then we actually did it this time. Tell me your thoughts. How did you feel when the whistle blew on November 16, 2005 and you realized that Trinidad & Tobago was going to the World Cup?
The General: Let’s go back to 1973. I wasn’t fully aware of that situation. I learnt about it afterwards, just by chance. Because in Vancouver, in North America at that time, football wasn’t elaborately broadcasted as it is now. In 1989, I saw it on television. I had a perception as to why the team lost even before I got the news why they lost. I thought that they had looked a tired team on the field. This particular team, I say this team is a team of destiny in a sense. I didn’t think that they played exceptionally great football, I thought it was a hard working team that was well captained and maybe well coached. I don’t know how good the coach is, but I am a believer in football more than any other sport, that it’s the players that win games rather than coaches. I feel very strongly about that. Now I say this is a team of destiny because I look at some of the brief history as to where Trinidad & Tobago were 3-4 years ago when Dwight Yorke and Latapy retired from international football. And here, who expected them to come back, nobody. The irony in bringing back Bertille St. Clair, who I think may have been responsible for going and getting Dwight Yorke to come back. You put all that together and you try to explain that whole situation, when the team only had 1 point, but Dwight always kept saying that we would get to Germany, he was always very positive. Anybody with common sense would know that if Dwight came back, Latapy would come back because they are close friends. Then you add Stern John and you add some of the other players like Andrews and they all come back and you could see a whole different approach to the game. It’s like “this is it”, a do or die kind of attitude that I’ve never seen in a Trinidad team before. So what I’m saying is that the connection between Dwight Yorke and Latapy, the connection between St. Clair and Yorke and maybe other circumstances. The fact that you hired St. Clair then you fired him and you went and you get this Holland-based coach and everything just seemed to fall into place. I call that destiny.
palos: I will tell you this for me. I honestly felt that the team threw away the opportunity to go to the World Cup when we played Bahrain in Trinidad. You and I watched that game together. I was very disappointed.
The General: Football nowadays to me, even though we talk about the great tactics, my jury is still out as to why teams even at home play a defensive role. With all due respect to a coach, I think you should try to go out and beat the opposition at home. Trinidad didn’t play very well at home and I think they were lucky to get away with a draw. But then again, they went to Bahrain and then Bahrain did exactly [laughs] what Trinidad did. In my opinion they gave them an opportunity to get back into the game and as a result Trinidad was able to win. But when you look at both games you could see that there was more energy in the Trinidad team in Bahrain than there was in Trinidad & Tobago.
palos: What has Carlton Franco been doing since he moved to Canada, from a footballing perspective?
The General: I came here because of football. I was asked to come by a friend of mine back in 1963. He said to me that I can further my studies and I can get some money playing semi-professionally even though they had Europeans from all over the world. I was able to parlay that whole situation into University degrees, a Bachelor’s and a Master’s. I’m into Social Work as a Social Administrator and Supervisor. I got into coaching, I never took a coaching course in my life and when I started to coach I used some of the techniques that I used in my time and the teams that I coached were all successful. The first team I coached, I actually took them to Trinidad one year. They started in fourth division and they came to first division in four years. All I did was teach them basic football. I never told them anything about my history; they found that out when they went to Trinidad. They went some place and people were asking them where they were from and they said they were from Canada, They asked them what are they doing in Trinidad, and they said that they came to play football and their coach is from Trinidad. They asked them who their coach was and they said Carlton Franco. Then they got the history. So they turned around now and they wanted to pay that kind of tribute to me because they didn’t win a game and after that they won all the games they played. So I don’t know if that gave them inspiration or they figured they didn’t want to make me look bad in Trinidad, or whatever. So I did some coaching for a while, then I coached the Simon Fraser University Alumni team for one year. A guy came and asked me if I wanted to represent them and said they wanted a coach and I said, “not at that age..these are graduate students”. He said “no…you can do it” and I said OK, I would do it and I did it for the first year, it was tough. The second year I realized that on game day I was more excited than the players so I decided it was time to quit.
palos: A couple of quick questions. Pele or Maradona?
The General: Pele.
palos: No hesitation?
The General: No hesitation and I’ll tell you why. More all-round football. He’s good in the air, he’s good on the ground, he carries a team as well as Maradona carries a team.
palos: I disagree. Maradona had no help compared to Pele.
The General: No, Maradona had help. Maradona showed more individual skills than Pele because Pele had, I would admit, had better players around him. But take that apart and go back to Pele when he was 17 years old and how he emerged into big time football and the kind of things he did, even when he was injured. He came back after the injury in 1966 in England and led Brazil to the World Cup in Mexico when they beat Italy.
palos: That was a super team. They didn’t need Pele then [laughs].
The General: I disagree. You still need an individual because Johan Cruyff had a super team.
palos: You know my boy is Maradona.
The General: But they couldn’t beat anybody.
palos: Are you seeing anybody in today’s football who can challenge the likes of a Pele, Maradona or Cruyff?
The General: I am partial towards this boy from Arsenal. I mean, he does some incredible things.
palos: Could you say that again, please? What club is he playing for?
The General: He plays for Arsenal. His name is Thierry Henry.
palos: So you think Henry’s better than the fella from Barcelona?
The General: Well I don’t see the fella from Barcelona too often, but anytime I see him, I’m amazed also.
palos: Do you know who I’m talking about?
The General: You’re talking about Ronaldinho. I’ve seen Ronaldinho and everytime I have seen him it’s magical, but maybe I see Henry more often than Ronaldinho, so my judgment may be a little bit biased.
palos: Henry is excellent plus he’s playing for a real good club. That is for truthseeker and them kind of fellas out there.
The General: The kind of goals that Henry scores, it’s like you want to know, who is he playing against, so simple, there’s no fuss. He has a lot of skill. I like his style. Sometime he hides in some games and you don’t see him, but still, when he’s on he’s on.
palos: When he’s playing for France.
The General: That’s right, you don’t see him too much when he’s playing for France. He’s a club player.
palos: Now finally, any parting words for the crew on the socawarriors.net forum who might not know Carlton Franco. Any words to say this is who I am? What does Carlton stand for? If you wanted to be known for something, what would that be?
The General: I grew up in the community of St. James and I didn’t grow up with riches but I grew up with family, strong family and community ties and I’m always a person who supports the underdog. That has always been my approach. For example, when I came to Canada and I had a choice after University whether to go into Law School or the School of Social Work. I chose social work because of what I wanted to impart, what I wanted to become involved with. I never thought about the money I could make as a lawyer, I just though about humanity. As a young man growing up in Trinidad in St. James and my peers can tell you, I was captain of the team at Progressive, I was captain of the team at Malvern. The players can tell you about the kind of person I was in terms of sportsmanship, relationships. And if you want to go to anyone to confirm this, you can talk to a guy by the name of Ken Henry. Now people like Hamilton Holder is dead and Freddie Townsend who might be still alive, he’s the guy who made me captain at a very young age, not only in football, but also in cricket. When people asked: “Well why is he the captain of the cricket team?” He’d tell them it’s because I had leadership qualities.
palos: On behalf of the socwarriors.net family and me personally, it was a real pleasure doing this interview and I thank you for taking the time and inviting me to your home to have this done. socawarriors.net again, we have the legend himself, Carlton “The General” Franco. You cannot know where you’re going unless you know where you came from. This is one of the pioneers. This is one of the fellas who really helped to put Trinidad & Tobago on the football map. Without these kind of fellas we would not be in the position of going to the World Cup in Germany.
The General: You’re very welcome.
