It is a time for quiet reflection and even a few tears for Kristy, Nicholas and Jessica De Leon.
The wife and two of the children of local former football standout Leroy De Leon, have found themselves in the country from their base in Phoenix, Arizona, in the United Sates, trying to come to terms with the plight of their husband and father, currently warded at the San Fernando General Hospital after suffering two strokes in the closing days of 2024.
Yesterday, they took some time to speak about their current ordeal and a bit about the man himself.
Primarily, wife Kristy is grateful for the support the family is receiving.
“Very thankful, very grateful...We could take a breath that somebody was watching out for him...until we could get there,” she says.
That support has come in the main from De Leon’s nephew Brent, and good friends Steve David, himself a national football icon, and Reginald Renwick, whose association with De Leon stretches back to the time when De Leon entered St Benedict’s College in 1964.
But sitting in the foyer of the Royal Hotel in San Fernando while her husband remains unable to communicate on his hospital bed, Kristy admits to an initial feeling of helplessness.
“First it’s a shock; you never think about these times that happen in your life...”
She adds: “It’s been a while, so it was hard to see him like that for sure. He’s so full of life and so full of laughter, so that part was difficult for all of us. But still, being there, now knowing what the condition is for ourselves, we can then talk about it and have some conversations and talk to the doctors and they can talk to us and let us know.”
Jessica adds: “I felt very helpless and then being able to meet Reginald and have people that are advocating for my dad and are on his side, it helps.”
Football is in the De Leon family genes. Kristy also played the game, as did both Nicholas and Jessica.
But in the cool interior of the hotel, Nicholas, who himself played seven seasons in Major League Soccer with DC United, relates some of the complexities that could arise when your father is a renowned athlete.
“I went through a period with him,” he explains with care, when, “I idolized my dad when I was young.
“Through my teenage years, I demonized him through just a lack of understanding. (But) the older I got...you understand him as a person, and how he grew up and everything about him. But he continues: “I’m definitely in those (last) five or six years been in that humility stage and it’s been amazing because that’s when I’ve been able to start that reconnection again.”
Unsure of what the future will hold for his father, Nicholas is holding on to the memories of good times and the sporting legacy handed down to him.
He goes back to his MLS days and recalls playing at RFK Stadium, the ground where Leroy also played during his time as one of the pioneers in the North American and American Soccer Leagues in the 1960s and 70s.
“That kind of nostalgia was emotional at the time, to know that I was playing on the same grounds as him; big shoes to fill; really, really big shoes to fill. But that was also something he instilled. He never wanted me to compare myself to him.”
Pride in who they are as De Leons, is also something that Leroy has passed on to Nicholas and Jessica.
And speaking of that De Leon personality, Renwick is effusive in his speech.
“Leroy was kind-hearted; he was very caring....I look at Leroy as a leader; I look at him as a champion of champions, a strategist but most of all to me, a humanitarian and a very good person.”
He was speaking from personal experience, recalling the days when as a down-and-out student in the United States, he was bailed out with lodging by De Leon and another former T&T player, Selris Figaro.
“Sellers and Leroy helped me out tremendously,” he recalls. “Had it not been for both of them, I would not have even finished my Masters degree and moved on to be a university lecturer and professor. So I’m indebted to Leroy at all times.”
Renwick is now playing the role of supporter to his friend in need.
But he also took the time to hail De Leon the midfield maestro, one of the products developed at St Benedict’s through the vision of principal Dom Basil Matthews.
“I did not see Shay Seymour, and I have all respect for Delbert Charleau and Doyle Griffith, Carlton Franco, and most recently (Russell) Latapy and Dwight Yorke. I have all respect for them…but Leroy was like a Caesar fighting Pompey.”
He explains: “Leroy was a strategist on the playing field. How Pompey was defeated by Caesar, Leroy was our Caesar in terms of strategy and planning and technique and everything.”
Many of the De Leon references on this day are unconsciously, inadvertently made in the past tense, a reminder of the difficult, present reality.
Keith Renaud, a St Benedict’s team-mate and friend of De Leon summed up this time best.
“I’m not feeling so well about the situation that exists at the moment. Leroy De Leon I consider to be the Lionel Messi of our time; a wonderful, brilliant, talented footballer and leader….I feel really sad to see him the way he is now, but we hope that he will recover.”
SOURCE: T&T Express