James Thomas named Trinidad and Tobago women's football team coach

James Thomas -
James Thomas -

THE TRINIDAD and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) has appointed James Thomas as coach of the national women's team.

Thomas, the holder of both a UEFA A License and a UEFA Elite Youth A License, previously served as assistant coach and performance analyst of the Wales women’s team. He also worked with the Wales national performance squad, as well as Wales' Under-19 and U-17 teams.

Thomas said he was delighted to be named as the TT women’s coach.

“I am honoured and delighted to be given the opportunity to (serve as) the TT women’s team coach,” Thomas told TTFA Media on Thursday.

James has already put in a lot of work behind the scenes, familiarising himself with the player pool available and mapping out a plan for 2021 alongside the TTFA technical department.

“There is a terrific blend of experience and youth within the pathway and my experiences of working across all age groups, from youth to senior, at both club and international levels, will allow me to develop both the individual and the teams to help us reach our goals," he said.

“As well as working with the national team in their quest to qualify for major tournaments, I feel a fundamental part of a head coach's role is to influence the domestic and international age group player pathways to support the development of the game in Trinidad and Tobago, and give all players and fans a women’s national team programme everybody can be proud of,” James added.

After receiving 195 applications, Thomas was selected after an extensive selection process that involved different stages of evaluations and interviews. The selection panel narrowed down the list of applicants to 20 candidates who were then evaluated. The top five candidates were then selected and interviewed. Thereafter the top three candidates were invited to another round of interviews, with Thomas being chosen as TTFA’s candidate of choice.

Thomas’ enthusiastic nature and his background of data analysis, mixed with the ideology of relating to players on a human level, offers a great blend that the Association believes can have a positive impact on the women's team and the entire programme.

His agreement is an initial one-year contract with an option to extend for a further year based on his achievement of KPI's and a successful performance appraisal. He is expected to arrive in Trinidad within the next few weeks.

The additional members of the TT women’s technical staff will be announced shortly and will be local-based. The players selected for training will all benefit from medical screenings provided by HealthNet Caribbean and will then undergo fitness assessments prior to the start of the training programme.

Comments

"James Thomas named Trinidad and Tobago women’s football team coach"

More in this section