JUST 23 years old, Darryl Roberts became the latest Trinidad and Tobago Soca Warrior to sign a European contract when he was hired for 18 months by Sparta Rotterdam, who play in the top division in Holland, home of T&T head coach Wim Rijsbergen.
Roberts confirmed the move while on a two-match tour of Central America with an inexperienced Soca Warriors team who were defeated in matches against Panama (2-1) last Wednesday and Costa Rica (4-0) on Sunday.
"I just signed a contract with Sparta Rotterdam. As you know, they play in the Eredevisie. So, hopefully, I could be over there by mid-February and see how things go from there. Honestly, I wanted to finish my degree first before I do anything. But, I was able to get the contract through the help of my agent Heather McKenzie, who is in America, and through the help of another agent who is in Europe.
"They suggested this Dutch league. I have spoken to the coaches here (Rijsbergen) and they gave me advice and they said I could develop very well as a player there and they gave me some personal experiences of their own. So, we will see how it takes off."
Until playing for the national team in last month's Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals, Roberts was an almost unknown player in Trinidad and Tobago, although he represented Fatima College in the Secondary Schools Football League from 1998-2001.
A former Malta Carib Alcons player, he was recommended to ex-T&T coach Bertille St Clair by current national assistant coach Anton Corneal in 2004 at the start of the qualifying campaign in which T&T booked a place at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
But, after being in the training squad for the game against Dominican Republic and a practice match against Northern Ireland, Roberts was not given another chance to address the selectors, until Rijsbergen spotted him in the United States during a scouting exercise late last year in South Carolina.
Roberts had continued to represent Liberty College, where he became Liberty's all-time leading scorer in his final season. He was also selected to his second All-South Atlantic Region team with his selection to the third team as a senior, having been named to the second team as a freshman in 2002.
In addition, he was named to his third Big South all-conference second team to go along with a first-team selection in 2002. That year, Roberts was selected a Freshman All-America after scoring a nation-high 17 goals.
He played through the Caribbean Cup Finals where he impressed quite a few, including coach Rijsbergen, notably when he took a goalkeeper's charge which set up fellow striker Gary Glasgow for a goal against Martinique.
Roberts said his Caribbean Cup experience was instrumental in securing the Dutch contract.
"The agent in Europe took some of the DVDs from the Digicel Cup, and when he went into Sparta and showed them the DVDs, from then on they were very interested," Roberts reported, adding that he will now go back to the USA and try to secure his work permit, before heading off to Holland in a week or so.
