Football scout spots talented players

(CNS): As Cayman’s hopes of qualifying for the Uner-15 CONCACAF tournament semi-finals fade, their hopes for future footballing glory are still very much alive. The academy manager for Swindon Town Football Club in the UK, where three young Cayman footballers are already in attendance, has said he could be picking up a few more for the club's youth programme. Jeremy Newton is in the Cayman Islands for the tournament and scouting more players, particularly from Cayman, as a result of the existing relationship between Swindon Town and CIFA and because he sees the islands as a genuine source of footballing talent.

Newton spoke to AtWater Consultiing, which produces the Cayman Sports Documentary Series, and told them that he has identified some more local players he thought might warrant a try-out in England,

“I’m looking at anyone, but more importantly the Cayman players,” he said. “I think there’s an abundance of talent on the island,” he said. “I think there’s always going to players [from Cayman capable of going to Swindon], whether it’s this year, next year or sometime after that.”

Children who are offered contracts and go to Swindon have to attend a nearby school. The academy only has 150 boys from age 6 to 18, with each age group having about 16 players. The best of the players at age 15 are offered a two-year contract to play for the Swindon Town Football Club youth team, where they actually get paid to play and finished their education.  The elite players from the youth team can then have their contracts purchased by professional men’s leagues.

“It takes a lot of time and hard work in order to try and make the grade of becoming a professional football player,” Newton said. “I think in the current group of under-15s at the moment some will go on to play at the highest level and some will play in the leagues below that,” he said.

Regardless of how far a player goes, Newton says all of the players who attend Swindon Academy will go on to play football at some level, whether it be professional, on their national team or elsewhere, dependent on their personal talent and drive. They will also get to play against teams like Manchester United and Liverpool – which Sebastian and Kray two of Cayman’s football students have already done – and experience playing with players who will become among the best in the world at playing football.

Meanwhile, during the on-going tournament Honduras, which is carrying plenty of local support secured a place in the semi-finals during Monday’s action and Cayman will be back on the field tonight to take on Aruba and hoping to get a final win under their belts before they are forced to bow out of the tournament unless St Maarten can provide a miracle for the host team and beat Bermuda.

At the end of Tuesday’s play the semi-finals will be decided but at present it looks as though Bermuda will come out top of group A, while in group B Guatemala and Jamaica will fight it out Tuesday to see who advances. With tournament favourites Honduras securing the top spot in group C, the group D slot will also be decided Tuesday when El Salvador the group leaders face off against second place Haiti.