European trio still in contention for Warriors job
By Nigel Simon (T&T Guardian)
Johan Neeskens, the former Holland international and assistant coach of its 1998 World Cup team, has been confirmed as one of the candidates in line to take over the Soca Warriors from Russell Latapy.
Contacted for an update on the post, Keith Look Loy, the T&T Football Federation’s technical advisor, said a decision is yet to be made but the Dutchman was definitely in contention. The Federation placed an advertisement in the daily newspapers on the weekend inviting applications for the post and Look Loy said this was in keeping with a desire to be as transparent and democratic as possible. “We will be dealing with Government’s money and in that regard we have to be accountable and transparent. This is an entire new approach which should be welcomed by the public.”
Apart from Neeskens, Look Loy also revealed that Portugal’s Carlos Queiroz and Germany’s Otto Pfister were all interested. The 59-year-old Neeskens, a former teammate of the legendary Johan Gruijff and ex-T&T coach Wim Rijsbergen, is currently out of a job, while Queiroz is a former coach of Real Madrid and has served as assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. Pfister, 73, led Burkina Faso, Zaire, Cameroon and Ghana to the African Cup of Nations. He also won the Fifa Under-17 World Cup with Ghana and the Under-19 African Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast. He last took Togo to the World Cup in 2006 while he has coached ten international teams, including Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.
Look Loy said there were other hopefuls with very good resumes and track records and the field will be narrowed down within a few weeks.“Before we can take our recommendations to the T&TFF Executive Committee, the coach selected will have to agree to a number of demands while we will also to meet a few demands as well. “Some of these issues include salary, whether they will be willing to work with local technical staff or bring in their own back-room staff as well as the other issues.“When all these things are sorted out then we will be able to make a recommendation”, added Look Loy. Other members of the Technical Committee are former Strike Squad member, Marlon Morris, T&TFF executive member and Northern Football Association president, Roland Forde, Dr Iva Gloudon and Dr Alvin Henderson.
.