National football team hailed as `Best Ever’
… Codrington named Player-of-the-Year
By Isaiah Chappelle
Guyana Chronicle
March 12, 2007
THE Caribbean leading goalscorer, Nigel Codrington, was declared the Player-of-the-Year and the national team was hailed the “Best Ever” at the Annual Awards & Presentation Ceremony of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) at Georgetown Club, Saturday night.
Codrington scored eleven goals in the Digicel Caribbean Cup to top the individual tally and was voted runner-up for the Most Valuable Player in the championship.
The striker has since returned to Trinidad & Tobago where he plays in the professional league and his mother collected his award.
National coach Wayne Dover who worked along with Technical Director Jamaal Shabazz was awarded the Coach-of-the-Year prize, while individual players received a gold pin and a plaque with the photograph of the starting line.
Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Sport, Steve Ninvalle, who represented sports minister Dr Frank Anthony, said the match against the Caribbean number one team in FIFA ranking, Cuba, eclipsed any doubt he had about the level of the team.
“After seeing the match with Cuba, I concluded that this was the best national team.”
LEADER in success: Technical Director Jamaal Shabazz is decorated with the team pin by GFF president Colin Klass. (Winston Oudkerk photos)
Ninvalle noted that national team turned around the image of the local game.
“From a case of who will beat us next, it is now who we will beat next.”
He congratulated Dover, noting that the local game was going places and the game has further to go.
“In my lifetime, Guyana will participate in a World Cup.”
Ninvalle also congratulated GFF president Colin Klass, saying he stood the test of time.
Giving the response on behalf of the veteran players who were honoured, former national player George Green declared that the present national team topped teams of the past.
“This is the best-ever national team I have seen.”
He congratulated the players for an “excellent performance” but said that players of the past were better individual players.
Greene pointed out that in the past they were never coached because there were no coaches and players learnt the rudiments of the game on their own and often were selected to national teams, merely days before the match.
“Most of us came from poor and humble backgrounds. We learnt of selection on the radio. All exploits were done under trying circumstances. We played for the love of the game.”
Klass said that 99.9 percent of the uniforms were begged for or were given but he believed the time would come when football would give back.
“We have started to do that. It is a proud moment for us all. We were told nothing good could come out of football.”
The football boss noted that the experience in the professional afforded the local players by Symbieo Gossine in Trinidad & Tobago was now paying dividends.
“There are no arguments now about food and stipend.”
Shabazz thanked all who contributed to the effort of the national team, saying that collectively, the view of football was changed.
“I saw a lot of disunity. The alphabet was, A for apple, B for bat and C for yourself. Now it is A for apple, B for bat and C for each other.”
The Trinidadian said the national team showed how sport can bring the people of Guyana together, who were politically marked with scars, long and deep.
“When we won, we did not see race. This is the power of sport.”
Director of Sport Neil Kumar also offered remarks on behalf of the National Sports Commission, talking of a dream to Guyana reaching the World Cup finals.
Six past national players were honoured with awards - Alvin Braithwaite, Amigo Dyal, George Green, Compton Julian, Burdette Marshall and Earl O’Neil.
The Sports Journalist-of-the-Year award went to Chronicle’s Isaiah Chappelle, Sports Photographer-of-the-Year to Chronicle’s Winston Oudkerk and the Electronic Media Award went to National Communications Network (NCN).
Roy McArthur received the Male Referee-of-the-Year award and Cynette Jeffrey the Female Referee-of-the-Year award while East Bank Demerara was the Association-of-the-Year.