St Lucia Times · খেলাধুলা

Young Boyz off to Baku for FIFA U15 World Cup

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Saint Lucia will open the historic FIFA Under-15 World Cup & Festival this weekend, with a game against Palestine from 4:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Hövsan Competition Complex. The 14-member squad departed Saint Lucia for the Azerbaijani capital of Baku on Monday.

The team comprises young men who have excelled for their schools, clubs, and community teams over the past year. The Saint Lucia Football Association Inc. has had them training as part of a High Performance Centre under head coach Earl Jean and FIFA talent identification coach Michael McLaughlin.

The captain, Kai Alexander, is a student of St Mary’s College, and won the Golden Boot at last year’s Secondary Schools Football Tournament. Winger Randall Monroe is perhaps best known for winning a bronze medal in long jump at the CARIFTA Games, but the Saint Lucia Sports Academy product is also a fine footballer.

The attack is also propped up by the likes of Castries Youth Football League leading scorer Anaj Polius (Monchy United FC), Leon Griffith (Soufrière Comprehensive), Leon Vidal and Mickel Florent (SLSA), Jessie Noel (TVET Institute: School of Sustainable Agriculture and Culinary Arts), and Stewart Emmanuel (Beanefield Comprehensive).

Defensively, the group includes Alston Lubin (SLSA), Ajhani Walker (NYAH FC), who had a hat-trick in the BOSL/LUCELEC Youth Tournament, Kohli Vitalis (Soufrière Comprehensive), Jaden Antoine (Monchy United FC), Vejay Edwin and Zackim Granderson (Mabouya Valley).

“The association has been really, really good in terms of helping us prepare,” said McLaughlin. “Training consistently throughout the last few weeks, and actually last week managed to go into a sort of minicamp where we’ve managed to prepare and bring the group together. The last few weeks have been excellent, and the players are ready to go.

“The biggest thing is going to be exposure, for the players to experience what it’s like playing against different cultures, different nationalities, different playing styles, and just being exposed to a high-performance environment as well. So when they come back, whether results are wins or losses, they’ll come back in a better place, and they’ll be better prepared and better equipped as they then go through their football journey, because hopefully these players should be the future of Saint Lucia football.”

Over three days, the young Piton Boyz will play five small-sided 8v8 preliminary games in Group N. Out of 189 national teams, the 32 group winners will compete for the FIFA U15 World Cup Championship trophy. The rest will be sorted into Tiers B-F, where they will continue to play a cross-elimination bracket.

McLaughlin said that the SLFA investment in youth football is paying off. Domestic U12, U14, and U19 tournaments have been played over the past three years, with several other community tournaments as well. The Scotsman said that the volume of competition is important for the young players.

“It’s crucial. It’s absolutely vital,” he stressed. “What I think we’re seeing in Saint Lucia, driven by the association and the district leagues, is a pathway forming from the Under-12 competition all the way up, and those playing opportunities are vital.

“So while we can get the training environment right, the playing opportunities are absolutely vital against different opposition from different districts within the island. And then these international competitions give us a chance to play the best with the best. So that’s been a massive thing.”

Saint Lucia National U15 Squad