Bradford City's tale of Trinidad and Tobago
By Ian Hemmens (widthofapost.com)Whilst we’re all chomping at the bit waiting for the new season to start, I thought I’d pass the time by telling you all a tale from years gone by.
Now Bradford City have always had a great history of diversity in their side stretching back to the multitude of Scots, Welsh and Irish players, but what about the even more exotic early pioneers? We had the first mixed race player in the first division in Willie Clarke in 1907, we had Lithuanian Jew Louis Bookman, a naturalised Irishman in 1912 – so diversity is nothing new to City.
Jump to the early 70s and City had two legends in their ranks in Ces Podd and Joe Cooke. Two giants of the club’s history, who served the Bantams with distinction for many years.
In the mid 2000s, Colin Todd appeared to have some sort of connection with Jamaican football, and we saw the arrival of four very decent players in Jermaine Johnson, Omar Daley, Donovan Ricketts and Damion Stewart. All are fondly remembered to varying degrees.
I’d like to mention another phase in the mid 90s which was pretty odd to say the least. In 1994, we brought over a very young Russell Latapy from Trinidad on trial. I think Ces recommended him and, despite being very highly talented, he was a bit lightweight. We also had problems trying to gain a work permit due to the poor standing of Trinidad internationally at that point and the fact he was still technically a junior.
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