Members of the Antigua and Barbuda senior men’s training squad take part in warm-up sessions at the FA’s Technical Center.
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By Neto Baptiste
Technical director for football in Antigua and Barbuda, Sowerby Gomes, is hoping to have more locally-bred players in the senior men’s national team as the country prepares for it’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign set to start in June.
“What we are trying to do is see an increased number of locally-based players pack the national team, so from the training onset, we are looking to reduce the number of overseas-based players joining the team. We have also reached out to other local [players] who would have left Antigua that went off and are playing in a professional set-up to rejoin the team and as we speak we have the likes of Jalmaro Calvin [midfielder] and Ronaldo Flowers [striker] and we’re looking for them to rejoin the national team to strengthen our set-up going forward,” he said.
Gomes, himself a former national player, was responding to questions regarding the number of overseas-based players whose services the FA normally employs for International encounters. The high numbers, which sometimes equate to more than half the squad, has been a topic of debate for many years.
The FA, last week, named a 35-member training squad for the FIFA qualifiers that, although included some homegrown players plying their trade in leagues outside of Antigua, did not include any England-based talent.
Neil Coachrane, deputy chair of the ABFA’s local organising committee, however said the body has identified a number of “new talent” that will be made public in short order.
“When we announce the list of players coming in to join the team for training then that information will be released to the media but we have identified some new talent,” he said.
The Antigua and Barbuda Benna Boys are set to open their Group A campaign against Bermuda here on June 5. The other teams in Group A are Honduras, Cuba and Cayman Islands. The top two teams will advance from the group.
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