FOLLOWING the resignation of Technical Director of the Golden Jaguars, Guyana’s Senior National Football team Jamal Shabazz, players jointly bid goodbye to the man they all call ‘coach’. In a letter sent by Captain Christopher Nurse on behalf of the team, Shabazz was described as a “tremendous leader and ambassador for football and one of the best coaches within the Caribbean”.

Having first come to Guyana in 2005, Shabazz propelled the National team to 90th in FIFA’s world ranking for the first time in its history before walking away in 2008.

In August of 2011, he returned to help lead the Golden Jaguars to the quarter finals of the FIFA Brazil 2014 World Cup Qualifiers after which he gracefully walked away again; for good this time as he (Shabazz) now sits as joint coach of the Trinidad and Tobago National team, more popularly known as the ‘Soca Warriors’.

Nurse believes that it was “only a matter of time before he would turn to new horizons to test his coaching capabilities to a new level”, adding “Personally I think that yes the recent lack of intent from the federation to show a willingness to take Guyana football forward was a contributing factor to his final decision as all who worked with Shabazz were well aware of his love for Guyana.”

The players remembered Shabazz as someone who sought to make sure the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) treat them with respect, as Nurse reflected “he fought many times on behalf of the players for the right things from the federation and could see the sleepless night he would have and the effort and detail he would go through in order to try to allow the team to prepare the best it could”.

“There were lessons we learned from coach Shabazz as players, but we also learned lessons as growing young men with aspirations of achieving great things…from all the players good Luck and God Bless,” Nurse noted.