AS PREPARATIONS wind down ahead of Sunday’s friendly international between Guyana and St Lucia at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, the Golden Jaguars continues to widen its pool of players.Two more overseas players have been added to the squad, 29-year-old Michael Ten-Pow who is Guyanese-born but migrated to the USA when he was a few months old.
The qualified computer engineer disclosed that he lived in Chile for five years before returning to the USA. His dad’s name is Rudolph Ten-Pow and his mother’s is Bonita Ten-Pow.
Ten-Pow disclosed that he has played at the national pool youth level in the United States and was contacted around the year 2000 by someone from the GFF but he didn’t take the opportunity then since he was at the height of his Computer Engineering studies.
“I’ve been an engineer for the last decade and have decided now to get back active in the game so I made contact with the GFF and told them that I need the opportunity to get involved. I still have skills; still have a good body on me and a desire to represent my country, so it’s an opportunity I’m happy and lucky to have.”
Ten-Pow disclosed that he plays in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) in San Francisco with the San Francisco Stompers Football Club as a left winger.
“I am aiming and expecting to become a permanent fixture with the Golden Jaguars with good performances. I would like to see Guyana get back to prominence. I know we had a good run a few years back, and I would like to see us do it again.
“I know some people have written us off given the kind of turmoil that has happened but I would like to see that change.”
Twenty year-old Daniel White is based in Canada and his dad, James White, is from Campbellville, Georgetown. He said it was always his dream to play for his dad’s country and he intends to make this opportunity count.
“The Golden Jaguars are really welcoming, it’s like a family right now, and they are kind to me and respectful and they treat me as one of them.”
White plies his trade in Canada at an Academy called Sigma FC which plays in League One which is a very competitive league and is of the view that the level of competition there has played a great part in preparing him for this challenge.
“I’m in my third year at university studying to become a physiotherapist or to get into sports medicine.”
The 18-man squad to face St Lucia would be selected tomorrow morning ahead of Sunday’s game. National captain Christopher Nurse has also joined the squad. Nurse, a defensive midfielder, was recently re-signed by the RailHawks ahead of the 2015 NASL Season.
Nurse, a key player on the 2011 RailHawks roster that won the regular season championship, will return to the RailHawks one more time. In 2012, Nurse returned for his second season with the RailHawks, making 10 appearances while registering 6 starts and 1 assist.
A release from the club said that Nurse has developed vast experience at different levels of the game throughout his extensive professional career.
He has played for several Conference North and Southern Football League clubs in England, such as Tamworth Football Club, Moor Green and Hinckley United, as well as NASL sides Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Puerto Rico Islanders and FC Edmonton.