Stern John. Den Latas. Dilly 3rd. Den 8 others.
Stern John first only because it eh have no dispute fuh de forward line. De bess ever striker from T&T bar none.
Latas only have debate because a Dilly.
De ress could fight up. But when namin a T&T All Star team....dem 3 fuss.
i eh fraid to ask a chupit question..
who is Dilly?
Leroy De Leon
I'll Never Forget...Revenge of the country bookie.By David Brewster.
21-Aug-2003 - The youngsters he has been working with recently at his camps at Mahaica and Port of Spain, see a clean-shaven man of 55 who they know as coach Leroy De Leon.
Their fathers though, probably know him as just “Dilly”. Like Mike, and Tiger, Sachin and Ronaldo, one name is sufficient for identification and for rousing deep passion.
In the context of Trinidad and Tobago football history, Leroy De Leon belongs in that club. His folk-hero status was established in the 1960s and ‘70s when his unique set of ball skills, winning record, and force of personality, captured the imagination of at least two generations. Whether he was wearing the green and gold of St Benedict’s College, the red and yellow of Point Fortin Civic Centre, or the red, black and white of the national team, he was a maker of memories with his quick feet and clever passes.
All who saw him will have their special Dilly story. For him too, there are a few outstanding ones.
He remembers the 1969 CONCACAF World Cup qualifying tournament in Costa Rica, not so much for the football—T&T finished out of the top spots—but for what happened afterwards.
“Here I am sitting in the auditorium and they are giving out awards and congratulating the teams that are going through and my name was called (as the MVP). It was a total surprise,” he tells me.
“I’m thinking, why are they calling me? We didn’t win anything, we didn’t even get close. But then again, looking back, I must have done something. I did accept it, and I don’t know where it is now, I gave it to my mom.”
On the field, Dilly also took special pleasure from silencing a famous voice.
Raffie Knowles, himself a legend in sports broadcasting, seemingly did not think much of the chances of the St Benedict’s side which De Leon led out against Fatima College in a 1960s Intercol tie on Fatima Ground, Mucurapo. And, in typical Raffie style, he did not keep his opinions to himself. But with five minutes to go in the match with Benedict’s down 0-1, it seemed that he had called it right. Captain Dilly thought otherwise.
“I remember Dick Furlonge, he was playing right wing at the time,” the man recalls. “He could not beat this defender, and I knew Dick to do it, so I was getting angry at him. I was the captain at the time, so I told him to come back and play midfield, I’ll go up top. Then Allan Cupid was the (Benedict’s) goalkeeper, he got a ball, and I ran in the (Benedict’s 18-yard box) and I said: ‘Give me the ball!’ He was getting ready to kick out the ball, but I said no, give me the ball... I was playing all over the field. Wherever the ball was, I was there. So I was in the defence, I took the ball and I just... There was no one in front of me as far as I was concerned... got in their 18, put it off to Archie (Warren Archibald), 1-1.
Dilly was not finished. Shortly before the final whistle: “Up the road again, almost the same spot. This time I won the ball, and I think Wilfred Cave scored the goal.”
The Fatima crowd were not the only ones left speechless by the turnaround.
“When I went home, my mom said they thought there was some emergency (with Raffie Knowles) because the radio went dead! She said they were playing with the knobs trying to figure out, we lose the station? Went dead!”
What Knowles and the fans witnessed that day, would be repeated oftentimes during those high-riding St Benedict’s days of Dilly, Archie and “Bound to Score” Cave.In particular, De Leon, the playmaker, and his childhood colleague Archibald, the wing dazzler, had a special telepathy.
“We understood each other, De Leon explains. “It’s like watching Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen when they played. It’s almost the same thing.”
De Leon and Archibald also took their show onto a bigger stage.
The North vs South Classic of 1963, saw a 15-year-old De Leon and Archibald lining up for an unfancied South side against the star-studded town boys at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain.
Lincoln Phillips, Sedley Joseph, Tyrone de La Bastide, Charlie Spooner, Gerry Brown, Victor Gamaldo, Kelvin Berassa, Arthur “Jap” Brown were all household names and national players, playing for the northerners. The odds, like the crowd, seemed against South.
“Queen’s Park Oval was filled, and I would say 90 per cent was North people,” recalls De Leon.
And at 2-0 by half time, North were justifying those odds.
But then someone made a fatal mistake. He provoked Dilly.
“I was walking back to the dressing room... First to begin with, Raffie Knowles had an article on the papers saying that there was no way South could beat North with young De Leon and South is making a big mistake and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, one thing that really ticked me off as I was walking in, somebody called us Country Bookies. And I went in the dressing room, and I don’t remember who was coaching us at the time, I never listened to one word he said. In my mind, I couldn’t wait to get back on the field to show these guys what this Country Bookie could do. The level went from here to here (motioning with his hands). And we ended up beating them 4-2, we came back and scored four unanswered goals.
De Leon himself sparked the recovery. Spectacularly.
“Lincoln Phillips was in goal. He had a habit of coming out on the 18-yard line and directing traffic. And the ball came (just inside of the centre circle), and I shook one guy and I saw him standing there, and I hit it! I just beat one guy, took a touch, put it in the back (of the net).”
It was now Archibald’s turn to shine.
“Then Archie came down,” recalls De Leon. “I did my stuff, put it to Archie...put it in the back of the net... I don’t remember the rest.”
The scores were level, but the final result was now a formality.
He explains: “After I scored the first goal, I knew we were going to win the game. Archie and I, we looked at each other, and you could just feel it. You know you score a goal and you just know, we got ‘em now, we got ‘em. They were beating us, but they were not beating us. They had guys up top who could score goals. But we were beating them on the field but just couldn’t finish. But once we got the first one in, the floodgates opened.”
Displays like this one soon took De Leon onto the national team. Shortly after he turned 16, he made his debut as a substitute at the same Oval against a visiting Brazilian Under-23 team. T&T won 2-1 that day, and for De Leon, there were lasting benefits.
“It impacted my career greatly, because (St Benedict’s principal) Dom Basil Matthews ended up hiring a guy from Brazil (Americo Brunner) to coach. And when he came in, he kind of tamed my game a little bit. He said I didn’t have to run all over the field. When I got off the field, I should be mentally, not physically drained. He taught us how to move and when to move and why to move... My whole game changed.”
It was not long before Dilly was taking his show on the road to the fledgling North American Soccer League. He was to find new fame there.
The “Country Bookie” had gone big time.
I attended both of these games, saw Dilly play numerous times. Gally and Earl Fough played for Fatima that day.
Dilly was the best I ever saw from T & T. followed by Gally, Archie and Steve David.
Lincoln
Springer Figaro Grell Rondon
Deleon
Gally Archie
Latapy
Steve David Stern John
My 2 cents...
