Military send off for former TT footballer

Former TT footballer Lawrence ‘Fred’ Rondon will be buried on Wednesday and not Tuesday as previously reported, his friends Devonish Paul and Selby Browne confirmed.

Paul said the funeral has been pushed back by one day to give Rondon, a former police inspector, a full military send off. He said the funeral will be held on Wednesday at the St Paul’s RC Church, Couva, from 2 pm and the body will be interred at the Freeport private cemetery.

Rondon, 68, of Freeport, died last Friday after a battle with cancer. He was a member of the national football team that participated in the FIFA World Cup 1974 CONCACAF qualifiers. He also served as captain of the St Benedict’s College football team in 1967 and represented the Colleges League Football Team, South Trinidad and the Caroni Limited Football team.

He leaves to mourn his wife Amber and four children, Lawrence Jr, Leslie, Lisa and Richie.

Paul who has been a friend of Rondon since 1967, recalled that throughout his football career, “Fred never got a red card. That was the discipline of this man.”

In a release, The Veteran Footballers Foundation of TT (VFFOTT) also described Rondon as a gentle giant and a man of integrity, “with the desired moral fabric and a gentleman with his God as his guide.”