Any student of the game watching Trinidad and Tobago play against Chinese Club Beijing Guoan, would have singled out Keyeno Thomas as the local player who stood head and shoulders above the rest.

That is, of course, if you were looking at players performing their roles rather than just their flair. Having the spotlight stolen despite doing all the hard work is not something that bothers the six foot-plus, Joe Public and national team defender.

“I have grown accustomed to the contribution of defenders being by-passed,” says Keyeno.

“When I was younger it would upset me but now it does not really affect me when people hardly recognise the hard work put in by the defence.

“Sometimes we (the defenders) are the ones who saved the day, but the only time you read about our contribution to the game is if we scored an own goal or got dribbled,” he adds.

Hailing from deep South—Gonzales Village, Guapo—Thomas was brought to town by coach Muhammed Isa, who discovered the robust defender while playing for Uprising in the Semi Pro Football League. Having played all his football, virtually unknown in Point Fortin, life was to change drastically for Thomas after he signed his first contract with Joe Public, in the middle of the ‘97 season.

A season of tight marking and winning tough tackles earned Thomas a call-up from Bertille St. Clair to the national senior team for the 1998 Copa Caribe Tournament.

An injury to Marvin Andrews in the first game, saw Keyeno making his international debut against Jamaica and performing creditable enough to start in the other five matches of the tournament, which was held in Trinidad.

A Major League Soccer (MLS) trial in the USA arranged by Joe Public in 2000 saw Thomas, drafted into the Colorado Rapids.

“This move improved my game by leaps and bounds,” says Thomas.

“Playing alongside Marcello Balboa, the former USA defender at Colorado, really improved my game. He taught me some tricks of the trade in defending.

“Marcello would invite me to his house and encourage me to read books. He showed me tapes and documentaries of defenders and in training he would always encourage me.

“Even when he shouted it was always constructive and helpful, “ said Thomas, who spent a year and a half in the MLS.
Keyeno returned to Trinidad midway in 2001 when an injury forced him to sit out the rest of the year.

“Playing for Colorado against Sporting Lisbon in Portugal, during the preseason, I sufferred a broken wrist.

“Against the advice of the doctors I still tried to train, but it became too painful and the club and I mutually agreed to a waiver, and I returned home.”

He returned to the MLS for a brief period last year when injuries forced the Rapids to send an SOS for him to play in five matches. But when given an opportunity to sign back with the MLS club, he declined and opted to return to Joe Public.

“I enjoyed my stay in Colorado, but I did not really enjoy the football there. I think in the MLS a lot of players get unnecessary protection.

“I am a tough tackling defender. That is my game. In the MLS they would blow against me so often that it had me uncomfortable.

“So I came home to make the national team and maybe get an opportunity to play in Europe,” confesses Thomas.

Watching Marvin Andrews play in the Scottish League and seeing the brutal duels between defenders and strikers would make some players cringe. However, the hard tackling Keyeno confesses to “relishing this situation”.

“I would love to play in Scotland. The way they play over there from what I have seen on TV more suits the way I play.

“I play very hard. The harder the game, the more at home I feel.”

Reflecting on his time in the MLS, Thomas believes the main differences with the game in Trinidad and what he saw in the MLS was the attitude of coaches and clubs to time and dealing with players.

“Everything in the club, while I was in the MLS, was centred around punctuality. The entire programme was based on being on time. The planning was very exact.

“Coaches at the Rapids dealt with players very straightforward even if it was the star player. There were no special priveleges like what some top players woud enjoy in a team in T&T.

“Some players would get more money than others, but when it came to towing the line it was across the board...everyone had to tow the line.

“If you did nonsense, don’t care who you were, they took the necessary action without fear or favour,” said Thomas.
Five years with Joe Public and the exodus of top senior players like Arnold Dwarika, Angus Eve, Stokely Mason and Michael McComie has thrust Keyeno into a leadership role as he is now a senior member of the club.

“I realise I now have to pass on to the younger players some of the things I learnt from people like Balboa.

“Most of the Joe Publc team now are under 23 and a lot is expected of me. I try to give of my best all the time because you want to win the big games against the W-Connection and Jabloteh.

“Yet you do not want to lose the smaller games, like to North East Stars or Starworld,” he points out.

There was a time when Keyeno would work very hard in preparation for a game with the national team but come game time, he would be by-passed in favour of a foreign-based player.

“I would be very, very disappointed when this happened. Because not only were you working hard, but you are thinking about making the team and then a player would be picked on the sole basis that he was a foreign-based.

“But that would make me work harder...because I love the game and I feel that a player can play his way onto the team”.

And while in the past he would feel jittery for his pick when foreign-based players were invited, today a confident Keyeno is not fazed.

“Not now! I do not even think of myself no other way than as a starter. I only focus on making the team now, no matter who comes home,” he says.

If the Joe Public defender continues to play as he did against Beijing Guoan his dream of playing in Europe may soon be realised.

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