‘Golden Jaguars' honoured at GFF annual awards ceremony
• Codrington is player of the year
By Franklin Wilson
Kaieteur News
March 12, 2007
It was certainly an evening of nostalgia as some of the great footballers of yesteryear and a number of our current stars were honored by the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) at their annual awards presentation ceremony, which was held at the Georgetown Club, Camp Street, on Saturday evening.
Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport, Steve Ninvalle, shared the feature remarks of the evening.
Also present were Director of Sport Neil Kumar, Mayor of Georgetown His Worship Hamilton Green along with executive and general council members of the GFF.
Presidential remarks were delivered by Colin Klass, while General Secretary George Rutherford shared some snap shots of 2006, one of the best years in the history of the Federation. Invitees were told that the GFF's plan for the construction of their own facility, which falls under the FIFA Goal Project, is now back on track and is expected to start before the end of the year.
The former footballers who were honored for their contribution to the sport in Guyana were George Green known as the neatest player, Alvin Braithwaite, Amigo Dyal, Compton Julian, Burdette Marshall and Earl O'Neil, all of whom were dazzling players in their time.
‘Golden Jaguars' Nigel ‘Powers' Codrington, who ended as the leading goal scorer in the 2006/7 Digicel Caribbean Cup competition with 11 goals, copped the GFF player of the year award. Head coach of the team, Wayne Dover, was named coach of the year. Roy Mc Arthur and Cynette Jeffrey are the respective male and female referees of the year.
East Bank Football Union walked away with the association of the year award, Isaiah Chappelle of the Chronicle copped the Sport Journalist award, while colleague Winston Oudkerk was named photographer of the year. National Communications Network received an award for providing outstanding radio and television coverage, while GFF employee Charlene Best was named worker of the year.
All the members of the Jaguars, coaching, medical and technical staff, which was made up of Guyanese and Trinidadians, were all honored.
Special awards were presented to former Pele coach Peter Gulliver and Reginald Campbell, while former Upper Demerara player Anthony Stevens Jr. who lost one of his legs some time ago received a monetary contribution from the GFF.