GUYANA’S senior national football team more popularly known as the Golden Jaguars will head to London, England, next week for their historic clash with Cray Wanderers Football Club in a friendly match on Sunday, August 8. The deal, which was made possible by Temptation Promotions, with whom the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) has inked a contract to help promote the Golden Jaguars and GT Promotions.
According to Faizal Khan, Marketing Director of Temptation Promotions, the clash between the two sides will “give Guyana the chance to follow in the footsteps of Trinidad and Jamaica who played games in the UK so as to look at UK-based players who would bolster Caribbean and world cup squads.”
Regarded as one of the world’s oldest football club, Cray Wanderers is at present celebrating 150 years of existence and it’s under this umbrella that the match will be played which Khan said was made possible thanks to his personal relationship with the club’s chairman Gary Hillman.

National team selection
In keeping with their ‘push the youngsters’ mandate, the GFF has named five local players who, along with national coach Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover and assistant Colin France, will join a batch of overseas players from Trinidad and Tobago, the USA and England, to participate in the event.
There was no place for national captain Howard Lowe in the squad which the Federation’s vice-president Franklyn Wilson explained that they are simply giving the younger talent a chance to be spotted.
Wilson did not speak of the Lowe’s omission from the names of the players travelling to London from Guyana and stated that the onus is now on the players selected to make the best use of it.
Local-based players Clive Andries, Ronson Williams, Eon Alleyne, Glenorvan Edmonds, and Mustapha Haqq, will join forces with Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson, Walter Moore, Shawn Beveney,  Jason Lloyd, JP Rodrigues, Brion Baker, Chris Bourne, Jake Newton, Kyle Marinda, Travis Jones, Alani Mounter, Chris Nurse, Ricky Shakes, Sean Cameron, Kabir Khan, and Konata Mannings,
The players and staff are set to depart on Thursday, August 5, and will join their overseas teammates in London.
Faizal Khan added that there are some players, all of Guyanese parentage, playing in the English Professional league, namely Leon Cort of Stoke City, West Bromich Albion’s Jerome Thomas and Aston Villa midfielder Fabeon Delph; just to name a few, who have all expressed interest in representing the country of their parents’ birth.
“All these guys really want to play international football. They say it’s their dream, but they want to see how the programme works and so on and that’s what makes this game very important.
“More so if Guyana could win and do well, it will speak much for the National team,” the England-based Khan said.
He explained that the game will be no easy one since the hosts will want to win and do so in front of their home crowd, and Guyana should go there expecting a tough match.