Najjar excited about TT U-17s.
By: Trinidad Newsday.
Former Trinidad and Tobago football coach Hannibal Najjar is excited about the chances of the national Under-17 team at the FIFA World Youth Cup in South Korea.
The tournament is scheduled to take place from August 18 until September 9 with the Anton Corneal-coached TT lads due to meet Ghana, Germany and Colombia in Group F.
The 53-year-old Najjar, who was on a short holiday in Trinidad from his homeland in Missouri, United States, commented, “I’m very excited about it, I think it is a positive step.
We are in, definitely, one of the more challenging groups. That’s a nice thing.”
Talking about the challenges facing the national team at South Korea, Najjar said, “one way or the other, whether we go and get embarrassed or we go and do well, the experience will be certainly good.
“It’s better to go there and have that feeling for yourself and be hurt,” he added.
“That gives you an impetus to do something about it in the future and make it.
Najjar continued, “it’s better to be there and not do well than to be here and think you could have done well.
I’m looking forward to it.” During various stages in the 1980s, Najjar served as national coach of the respective Under-17, Under-20, Under-21 and Under-23 teams. From October 2002 until April 1, 2003, he was at the helm of the national team before quitting after the team failed to gain an automatic qualification spot at the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
He is eagerly anticipating a speedy resolution to the ongoing impasse between the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) and the majority of the 2006 World Cup players over bonus payments.
“(The team) went and did (okay) in the Gold Cup but, certainly, you’ll like to see some of the foreign players on the squad, just to strengthen up the (team),” he said. “I am for playing the local players and bringing in the foreign players, not training the local players and have a load of foreign players coming in. “I believe that as much as the coach Wim (Rijsbergen) might have been complaining, I think he has to also understand that training players continuously, on a daily basis, gives you an opportunity to put in place what you want rather than have people coming from abroad and you’re struggling to have them fit into something that they’re not accustomed to.
“I’d just would like to see more continuously and more support for the programme but we continue to have some pulling and tugging, rights and wrongs, players and coaches, players and administration,” Najjar pointed out. “It should be better than that.”
“We’ve not gotten better in that area, managing our resources and pushing everything forward now,” he noted. “That is what development is, carrying success with each step forward.
“But we’re making too many steps back for the few steps we’ve made forward.”
Najjar, who recently completed a Masters degree in Sports Administration at the Lindenwood University, is now pursuing his Masters in Education.
“I’m enjoying the studies,” he said. “I find myself having time, not having the same kind of commitments in the past with college coaching and/or club coaching.
“I’m teaching and coaching (Living Word Christian High School),” he added.
“We’re doing exceptionally well. I’ve had three seasons there and, two seasons ago, we won (the) State, something we haven’t never done before (in Missouri) for small Christian schools. In both other seasons, we lost in the finals. “The team is doing very well and, for the first time, we can earn scholarships for players outside, into colleges,” Najjar added.
“The college was really a small school, not really producing significantly but we’re getting there. Coaches are looking at my players. The boys are up and about, trying to achieve something.”
