By Neto Baptiste
Striker Keyonte George will lead a 21-member Antigua and Barbuda Men’s Under-20 team at the upcoming CONCACAF Under-20 Championship in Costa Rica as the young Benna Boys seek to qualify for the 2027 FIFA Under-20 World Cup to be jointly hosted by Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
George, who plays for German professional club, Arminia Bielefeld, is joined by a number of other overseas-based players in the squad set to depart for Costa Rica this weekend.
Also named is Dajari Barthley from Bede’s Senior School, Marco Micheal of Future Pro Academy, Brandon Satchell of Christiana High School, Gregg Williams of Ackworth School, Vaughn Jackson of Brookhouse International School, Tegan Gumbs of Purdue Fort Wayne College, Gavin Gonsalves of Miami Palmetto High School and Conroy Browne of SG Wattenscheid.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, a confident George said the aim is finishing at the top of their group.
“They can expect from me leadership, they can expect 100% from me all the time. My goals are to be named the player of the tournament, to come out scoring most of the goals for the team and for my country and mostly winning, that’s my main point,” the player said.
Antigua and Barbuda will compete in Group C of the tournament where they will face teams from the Dominican Republic, St Lucia, British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Dominica.
Head coach and former national player, Schyan Jeffers, said preparations have been going well but there are still some areas in need of adjusting.
“We are able to judge and gauge our performance playing against Grenades and I’m somewhat satisfied but still there’s a lot of things that we need to improve on and a lot of things that we still need to continue to doing right. So, in the next couple of days the first thing for me, we’ll have to make sure that we are properly recovered, fully fit, injury free and we’re ready to go into the tournament. There’s a few things that I still need to go over like in possession and out of possession and still, I need to also work on my set pieces but other than that I think that we’re on the right path,” he said.
Only the team finishing at the top of the group will advance to the next round of the qualifiers and despite his confidence, Jeffers said he and his players are taking nothing for granted.
“We don’t know what other teams are doing, how they are preparing. Like ourselves, we brought in a few players to help our team and likewise, other teams can do the same thing. We don’t know what they have because we haven’t seen them play in a long time. So we definitely prepare for each team, one game at a time, 45 minutes at a time. We don’t look at the third and the fourth game as yet. We just focus on the first game,” the coach said.
Antigua and Barbuda opens their campaign on February 23rd against St Lucia before facing BVI two days later on February 25th. The young Benna Boys play Dominica on March 1st before rounding off their Group C campaign against the Dominican Republic on March 3rd.
Squad
Goalkeepers: Tegan Gumbs (Purdue Fort Wayne College), Gavin Gonsalves (Miami Palmetto High School), Eric Moreto (Aston Villa FC)
Defenders: Seth Black-Layne (Combine Academy), Zidaan Williams (Plantation Eagles FC), Jordan Francis (Aston Villa FC), Joshua Roache (All Saints United), Ivan Grant (Jets FC), Jayden Bowen (All Saints United)
Midfielders: Dajari Barthley (Bede’s Senior School), Marco Micheal (Future Pro), Vaughn Jackson (Brookhouse), Sedique Adams (All Saints United), Obediah Browne (Old Road FC), Jahvaughn Jarvis (Garden Stars FC), Joseph Jacobs (Unattached)
Forwards: Brandon Satchell (Christiana High School), Keyonte George (Arminia Bielefeld), Gregg Williams (Ackworth School), Jaiden Wray (Pigotts Bullets FC), Conroy Browne (SG Wattenscheid).