By: Jamal Browne
When the National U23 Football team of St. Vincent & the Grenadines hits the pitch against Caribbean rivals Jamaica, Suriname and The Cayman Islands in Group A of the Caribbean Football Union’s Olympic qualifiers, the team would not be without its perceived talisman – 21 year old striker, Cornelius Stewart.
Stewart, who is currently on contract with the Vancouver Whitecaps of US Major League Soccer, rejoined his local team-mates last Thursday July 7, on the Astroturf of the new Liverpool Football Club Soccer School located at the exquisite five star Buccament Bay Resort.
Considered by many as having a very successful professional football career ahead of him, ‘Cornie’ as he is affectionately known, has been described as fearless, skilful, extremely creative on the ball and possibly the new Rodney ‘Chang’ Jack.
Such tributes have become somewhat uncommon for young outstanding local athletes in recent times, as it is suggested that this creates a false sense of accomplishment – leading to underachievement and the eventual demise of near-rewarding careers.
However, one is easily encouraged and inspired by Stewart’s response to his many titles and accolades. In plainly genuine humility, he never fails to attribute his success thus far to absolute focus and discipline.
While confident that his team would do well on the upcoming CFU match-dates, the young forward does not discount the heartbreaking consequences of complacency and disorder. He however does not believe that this should be an issue for his team this time around.
Stewart is a likely candidate to wear the captain’s armband for the Suriname tournament, which runs August 3rd to 7th, 2011.
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