Newly-appointed Barbados Football Association (BFA) technical director Philip Marin believes Barbados has the talent to make an impression at next month’s FIFA Under-15 World Cup and Festival in Azerbaijan.
The Under-15 boys will travel to Baku for the tournament which runs from October 22 to 30, which means their preparations are one of the immediate priorities for Marin, who joined the BFA in July.
The showcases form part of the association’s preparation for the upcoming junior tournaments towards the end of this year and the start of 2027.
“In the Under-15 boys showcase, we saw about 108 boys who were born between 2011 and 2012. Their talent is very clear to see, it is up to us now to nurture this talent and to have them trained properly and under the right guidance,” Marin told Weekend Sport.
“We are planning for these international tournaments that are coming up. We have the Under-15 boys who will be participating in the FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival in Baku, then we have the CONCACAF Under-17 men’s qualifiers in February,” he said.
“After that, we have the Under-20 women’s qualifiers at the end of February and in March, and we need to do these talent identification showcases for us to see the best players within the country. So far, it has been going well.”
Last week, the BFA announced a 25-member Under-15 training squad, which features nine players from the Barbados Under-14 team that competed in last month’s Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Under-14 Challenge Series Tier One in the Dominican Republic.
Fresh from finishing third in their group with two points, Nalani Gulstone, Terrique Jordan, Malachi Sargeant, Andre Spencer, Zion Greene, Brent Lashley, Amar Kirton-Philips, Lashaun Small, Tajheri Watkins, and Demario Hewitt form the core of this new squad.
Marin said the talent identification process has also provided encouraging signs across the other age groups.
“For the Under-17 boys, it was the same, and we probably had about 88 of them. They have about three or four excellent players at that level. It was similar to the Under-15 girls’ talent,” he said.
Approximately 24 girls participated in the recent Under-20 showcase, with players ranging from 14 to 19 years old, but Marin admitted the level of performance among the women made selection particularly difficult.
“There are different levels that we are dealing with. It was hard to select the girls because of the level of their performance,” he said.
“I believe this is one area that I need to prioritise to see how we can increase the participation of females in football locally and see how we can increase the performance of girls when it comes to national and international tournaments.” (JC)
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