U-17 captain Garrett for trials at Sporting Lisbon

By Rawle Toney

Regarded as one of Guyana’s brightest prospects, National Under-17 captain Jeremy Garrett will be heading off for Portugal next month for try-out at Sporting Lisbon’s Youth Academy.

Also known as Sporting Clube de Portugal, the club is famous for producing the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo and Nani.

The try-out was made possible by Guyanese and Canadian football great, Alex Bunbury, who has legendary status playing for Club Sport Marítimo in Portugal’s Primeira Liga.

Garrett is also captain of Chase Academy, and helped the school to hoist the coveted Digicel School’s Football tournament trophy this year, with a 3 – 1 win over four-time champions Christianburg Wismar Secondary of Linden.

Garrett was handed the country’s captaincy ban this year when Guyana participated in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Under-17 Championship, where the ‘Junior Jaguars’ finish third in Group Four behind winners Jamaica and runners-up Antigua and Barbuda.

The 16-year old Garrett also features for the Fruta Conquerors Football Club and has also represented Guyana in the area of Track and Field, most recently being at the CARIFTA Games.

Details of Garrett’s stint at Sporting Lisbon will be announced at a Press Conference set for 11:00 hours tomorrow (October 14) at the Pegasus Hotel.

Sporting Lisbon is famous for its renowned youth programme, creating two FIFA World Player of the Year winners (Luís Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo), two Ballon d’Or winners (Luís Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo) and one runner-up (Paulo Futre), and one FIFA Ballon d’Or winner (Cristiano Ronaldo).

The academy also produced six UEFA Champions League winners (Paulo Futre, Luís Figo, Nuno Valente, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Ricardo Quaresma) and a large number of players who represented their country at the full international level more than 50 times, including Miguel, João Moutinho, Miguel Veloso and Simão.