TTFA announces Players of the Year nominees

FIVE male and four female national footballers have been nominated for the TT Football Association’s (TTFA) senior men and women’s Player of the Year awards.

Striker Levi Garcia, Keston Julien, Aubrey David, Marcus Joseph and goalkeeper Nicklas Frenderup have all been selected among the TTFA’s top flight senior male representatives for 2021.

The quintet represented TT during their unsuccessful 2022 World Cup qualifying bid and Gold Cup qualifiers. The former was contested under ex-national coach Terry Fenwick while the latter was led by current coach Angus Eve.

Additionally, Kennya ‘Yaya’ Cordner, Victoria Swift, Asha James and Maria Serrant were also nominated for the sport’s top female prize.

The quartet, after over two years of national team inactivity owing to the pandemic, returned to the competitive circuit this year.

They played four international friendlies; two drawn results (0-0 and 1-1) against Panama at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva in October and two away games (2-1 loss and 1-1) against Dominican Republic in November.

The women warriors also changed coaches twice this year as Welshman James Thomas resigned on October 6 after five months on the job.

A week later, TT men’s futsal coach Constantine Konstin was hired. Five days after Konstin was hired, he resigned for personal reasons and former national men’s team captain Kenwyne Jones was announced as interim coach.

He was however, appointed official team coach on December 1, and will serve a nine-month stint at the helm.

Meanwhile, indoor players Dylon King, Che Benny, Jameel Neptune and custodian Andre Marchan will vie for the futsal Player of the Year accolade.

The men’s futsal team were also unsuccessful in their quest at the Concacaf Futsal Championships in May. Led by then-coach Konstin, they were unable to produce a victorious result, losing 4-3 against hosts Guatemala and 6-2 against the Dominican Republic.

And in the beach soccer category, Ryan Augustine, Joash Baird, Jesse Bailey and goalie Jabari Gray are this year’s contenders for top player.

The awards will be selected using a combination of online (fan) votes and TTFA panel votes. Online voting runs until December 27.

The categories were set based on the activities that took place by the respective national teams during the calendar year.

The nominees were chosen based on performances for country and club (where applicable for senior men and women) by a panel comprising of the various national team head coaches and the technical director Dion La Foucade.

The top player in each category will receive a commemorative plaque as well as other prizes courtesy of TTFA partner, The Fan Club at Trinity Mall, the official local retailer for the TTFA/Bol national team gear.

All persons interested in submitting their choices in each category can do so via the link https://forms.gle/wgdDQJgnDWyJqWKW7.