By Neto Baptiste
A number of young talented Antiguan footballers could benefit from a recent UK tour with the Jets Football Club.
This is according to manager and founder of the Jets FC, Wayne Hewlett, who said that coming out of the one-month stint and tryout with the FCV International Football Academy, close to five players could return for much longer stints.
“At this point, we’re trying to work out four beds for Antiguans because they like the talent that they see out of Antigua. Again, we have been pushing other people, so we were telling them even about the boys that were at Future Pro, because they can fit in well into their senior team. So when they finish with Future Pro, maybe we might be able to assist them with filtering them there. They are now looking at players for their senior team, because they also want to get promoted again,” he said.
Hewlett did not name the players who could possibly return to the UK.
A total of 11 young footballers made the trip where they spent the summer honing their skills at FCV International Football Academy – the UK’s first private football academy – providing academic football courses for aspiring footballers aged between 14 and 21.
Hewlett expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the trip, adding that the reports on the players have all been positive.
“The whole staff up there love them; they’re quite manageable. They came in at least, I don’t want to say top 10, all 11 of them, including Keandre, were at least in the top 15 in fitness, out of the whole camp, for the whole summer. Even those that came before we were there and I must say, I have to commend them. None of their report cards had ‘satisfactory’ on it; everything from good up. So nothing with their behaviour, their attendance, and their football, had anything below good. Everything was good, excellent, going up,” the manager said.
Defender Ivan Grant, who made his second trip to the UK as part of the touring team, said the experience has made him a much better player.
“It was very good … I’d already been there before so I know what it’s all about. I just go and put in the hard work and push the other guys as well to put in the hard work so that we come back with a better mindset. I’m more confident on the ball now, a bit more composed as a centre-back because the style that Jets FC will be playing, we’re going to be playing out from the back most of the time, so the ball is going to start with the keeper, get past to one of the centre-halves and then we play out from the back going forward. I think that I improved on being more composed,” the player said.
Jets will contest the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association’s (ABFA) Second Division during the 2025/26 domestic season set to kick off in October.
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