RUSSELL LATAPY
PERSONALITY
PROFILE
Independent
July 28, 2000
Page 14
Russell
Latapy ranks high among the best footballers ever produced by
Trinidad and Tobago.
His
name has always been synonymous with a high quality of play as extracted, in
the past, by equally illustrious sons of the soil Carlton "Squeaky"
Hinds, Carlton "The General" Franco, Warren Archibald, Everald
'Gally' Cummings and a host of other attacking footballers.
Latapy
has been on the national scene since his days as an Under-10 footballer and has
produced many a sparkling performance that has inspired onlookers to dub him
"The Little Magician."
Latapy,
the current national football captain, scored one of the most significant goals
of his career in last Sunday's 1-0 win over Mexico in World Cup qualifying
action. The Independent takes this
opportunity to bring you a brief pen portrait of this mid-fielder, who among
other things, has been a spokesman for MasterCard.
NAME: Russell Latapy
POSITION: Mid-fielder
DATE
OF BIRTH:
August 2, 1968
HOMETOWN: Laventille, Port of Spain
PREVIOUS
CLUBS:
Trintoc, Port Morant United (Jamaica), Academica Coimbra (Portugal), FC Porto
(Portugal), Boavista (Portugal).
LEAGUE
CAREER:
1994/95, Porto - 14 games, 1 goal
1995/96, Porto - 26 games, 5 goals
1996/97, Boavista - 21 games, 0 goals
1997/98, Boavista - 19 games, 1 goal
1998/99, Hibernian - 23 games, 6 goals
FULL-INTERNATIONAL
DEBUT: 1985
NATIONAL
TEAMS:
Senior, Under-19, Under-16
POST-SECONDARY
SCHOOL: San
Fernando Technical Institute
SECONDARY
SCHOOL:
Tranquillity Government Secondary (Port of Spain)
CAREER
HIGHLIGHTS:
Won two Portuguese League titles with FC Port (1994-95 and 1995-96) and became
the first Trinidadian to appear in the European Champions' League during the
second season. These achievements came
more than a decade after leading San Fernando Tech to the national championship
("Big Seven") and National Intercol double in 1985, Latapy has also
represented Trinidad and Tobago in two out of this country's four appearances
in the Gold Cup: 1991 and 1996.
OTHER
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Latapy has been Trinidad and Tobago Footballer of the Year on four occasions:
1983, 1985, 1989 and 1996.
CURRENT
CLUB:
Hibernian (Scotland)
Another
of Alex McLeish's 'captures' with a pedigree that demonstrates this player has
nothing to prove to anyone. Having won
League and Cup winners medals in Portugal, Russell arrived at Easter Road
during the 1998/99 season and quickly demonstrated just why he is a national
hero in his native Trinidad and Tobago.
Recommended
to Hibs by Tony Rougier, Russell quickly settled in Edinburgh. Such was his impact after arriving almost
half way through the season, he was voted the Scottish division 1 Player of the
Year, and later was accorded the honour of being the Edinburgh Evening News
Sports Personality of the Year.
Latapy's
continued superb performances in the SPL have already led to him being accorded
the status of 'Legend' among a grateful Hibs support.