To be a highly competitve nation producing top quality players, 15-16 is the age where these players have to exposed to some sort of professional club or academy to be groomed and have a better chance of making career in football, at least overseas in our case. Unfortunately in T&T most 15-16 year olds haven't taken CXC yet and that is essential to have almost any sort of career as opposed to being a high school drop out. This is why if these players along with their families and clubs make the decision to leave school early sign with a local professional club, there should be some plan in place to ensure that they still take classes (maybe privately) so they can still take their CXC examinations. Even if these players are not sold to a club abroad, when they're done playing at home at at least have some form of education.
It will be interesting to see what the clubs in England do with youth players in acadamies, do they make them take O'levels? Didn't Beckham make his debut for United senior team at 16 yrs after playing on the reserves? I wonder what kind of educational plan they had in place for players like him?
