Three footballers left here last Saturday morning for England, for training stints with clubs there.
The three are senior national players, Shandell Samuel and Jamal Ballantyne, and Under-20 player Steven Henry.{{more}}
Samuel and Ballantyne are guests of Bolton Wanderers for one week in the first instance, with a possibility of being hosted by other clubs for the second week.
Henry joins Sheffield Wednesday as part of that Club’s Youth Development Programme. Another player, Thaddeus Velox, is expected to join Henry early next week. Velox is in Grenada with this country’s contingent at the annual Windward Island Secondary Schools’ games.
The players’ stint in England follows contacts initiated last December, while the senior squad was on two weeks training there.
In May this year, four senior players were set for a similar sojourn, but this was shelved. The senior team is preparing for the second round of the World Cup Qualifiers, while the Under-20 team travels to the Netherlands early next month for the CONCACAF play-off to the 2005 World Finals.
Samuel, Henry and Velox play for local club St. Vincent Motors System 3. Ballantyne plays for Rochester Rhinos in the U.S.A. A’ League.
All four players are expected back on July 26, along with National Head Coach Aide Shaw. The English-born Shaw is in his homeland attending to urgent family business.