Russell Latapy
Russell Latapy ( born August 2, 1968 in Laventille, Trinidad and Tobago ) is a coach and former football player from Trinidad and Tobago. The Little Magician is considered one of the best midfielders ever to have played for Trinidad. Early in his career he was very fast, but also towards the end of his career he was by his experience and understanding of the game as a playmaker an important pillar of both the national team of his native country, as well as the Falkirk FC of the Scottish Premier League.
Club career
As Latapy started his footballer career in the 1980s in Trinidad, he lived with Dwight Yorke, the other major football players of his generation of Trinidad in a shared flat. Since then, a friendship with Yorke joins him. After a club station in Jamaica, he moved to Europe in the early 1990s in the first Portuguese league first to Académica Coimbra and then successively to the two big clubs of Porto, Boavista and FC. He played for two clubs from Porto in the Portuguese Liga 80 times, scoring seven goals, was the first player from his home came in the UEFA Champions League action and achieving four national titles; two championships ( '95 and '96 with FC Porto ) and 1997 victories in Cup and Supercup ( with Boavista). In the summer of 1998, he then moved to Scotland in the local Premier League, where he has over 200 times was used and was able to achieve 43 goals. His stations were Hibernian, Rangers, Dundee United and Falkirk.
National
Latapy made his debut 20 years old in the fall of 1988 in a World Cup qualifier against Honduras at the Soca Worriors, previously he had already played in the different youth teams of a home. In qualifying for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, he was immediately one of the performers in the selection of Trinidad, but just failed. His subsequent career in the selection of Caribbean - state is characterized by alternating with periods of abstinence as a regular player, so he came '90, '93, '97 and '98 and '94 never, '95 and '99, each one in conclusion, in this decade, only 25 international appearances. But Latapy proved to be extremely dangerous at goal, he scored in these 25 games 23 results. After the failed qualification for the 2002 World Cup, he joined in 2001 from the national team after 27 goals in 57 missions back. In autumn 2005, could Dwight Yorke and coach Leo Beenhakker persuade him to 37 years one last time to try to qualify for the World Cup finals with the Soca Warriors. Lapaty despite his age to fill the role of playmaker in midfield again and had no small share of the qualifications of its home for the Football World Cup 2006 in Germany. Lapaty was appointed as the oldest outfield player of the tournament in the final round -up from their home country for the 2006 World Cup. From 2009 to 2011 he was the national coach of Trinidad and Tobago.