The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association has selected Welshman James Thomas as the head coach of the national women’s team.
Thomas is the last man standing after 195 applications and extensive interviews for the top position and he is absolutely delighted to be selected.
Speaking in an interview with the TTFA media, he said, “There is a terrific blend of experience and youth within the pathway and my experiences of working across all age groups, from youth to senior, at both club and international levels, will allow me to develop both the individual and the teams to help us reach our goals,”
Thomas continued, “As well as working with the national team in their quest to qualify for major tournaments, I feel a fundamental part of a head coach’s role is to influence the domestic and international age group player pathways to support the development of the game in Trinidad and Tobago, and give all players and fans a women’s national team programme everybody can be proud of,”
He is a holder of both a UEFA A License and a UEFA Elite Youth A License, previously served as assistant coach and performance analyst of the Wales women’s team. He also worked with the Wales national performance squad, as well as Wales’ Under-19 and U-17 teams.
James has already put in a lot of work behind the scenes, familiarising himself with the player pool available and mapping out a plan for 2021 alongside the TTFA technical department.
Thomas’ enthusiastic nature and his background of data analysis, mixed with the ideology of relating to players on a human level, offers a great blend that the Association believes can have a positive impact on the women’s team and the entire programme.
His agreement is an initial one-year contract with an option to extend for a further year based on his achievement of KPI’s and a successful performance appraisal. He is expected to arrive in Trinidad within the next few weeks.
The additional members of the TT women’s technical staff will be announced shortly and will be local-based.