National U20 men’s head-coach Wayne Dover said yesterday that roughly 30 players have been identified for further assessment following yesterday’s opening day of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) talent identification (ID) programme at the National Training Centre, Providence.
According to Dover in a Stabroek Sport exclusive, “It’s an ongoing process but we have identified approximately 30 players. At the end of this exercise, we will select a final pool of players to start the preparation for the campaign.”
He added, “It was well attended, it was a good decision to include the TDOs from the youth academies to help manage the sessions. Had we not done that, it would have been unmanageable. Approximately 60 players turned up this morning that were from the four associations which were Georgetown, East Bank, West Demerara and East Coast Demerara.”
The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) is scouting local players to prepare for the 2022 Concacaf men’s U20 Championship Qualifiers in November.
A talent ID leg will also take place in the United States of America from September 24th-26th.
According to the federation, all prospective players must provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 PCR test in order to participate in the sessions.
Dover disclosed, “We merely set out to scout the talent of the players, there were three aspects used this morning. That was the technical ability of the players, the tactical understanding and the decision making of the players. We were satisfied with how it went given the fact that many of those youngsters have passed through the youth academies and more than likely will form the core group, and that will enable us to identify a pool to work with.”
He went on, “I would deem it a success, this talent ID that was conducted today [yesterday] and concludes tomorrow [today] deals with only the local players. We are going to do a talent ID in the USA to identify the overseas players in the diasporas. That will most likely occur at the end of September and they will be added to the group as well.”
“Another talent ID will occur tomorrow [today] with four other associations, Berbice, Bartica, Essequibo and Upper Demerara and they will be added to this list. Later down in the middle of September, we will travel to the Rupununi area to conduct the talent ID for the hinterland players, those players will also be added to the group players”, he explained.
