The Georgetown Football Club (GFC) has made a valiant step in reversing its fortunes in the upcoming Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Stag Elite League second season by appointing Brazilian Fabiano Agripino as its first team head coach.
GFC’s new head coach Fabiano Agripino and Manager Faizal Khan
The 2015/2016 Elite league season GFC played 28 matches and lost 21, won four and drew three, resulting in them being placed in the bottom half of the points table after both halves of the season.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday the club’s Bourda location, Agripino is hoping that his appointment will result in a change in fortunes for the club in the new season, stating that the past is the past and they will challenge for a spot in the top four.
“It’s a new season and we come here to compete and develop players, that is our goal and that is our mission; nothing is a problem and we are not afraid of anyone”, the Brazilian confidently stated.
He added, “Faizal [GFC Manager] invited me for this challenge and to me it is normal because it will be the same as to what I did in other countries, I have a special feeling since we will be working hard for the results”.
In the capacity as Coach, Agripino led Ma Pau SC to glory in the Avanhandava Sao Paulo Pre season tournament in 2009 and also reached the finals with Westside Superstars in the 2011 final of the Trinidad and Tobago Super League Cup.
As a player, he played with teams from Mexico, Slovakia, Austria and Trinidad, where he was deemed the League Champion Most Valuable player in 1996, suiting up for Joe Public FC.
Club Sectary and team manager, Faizal Khan in commenting on the performance of the team last season, explained that the aim of the club was to give their youth players an opportunity to further develop and despite the defeats, the players showed promise.
“we did better in the first half of the league but after Christmas, we lost eight senior players and the decision was not to replace them with more youngsters, so we went into the second half with an even more younger squad than the first”, Khan disclosed.
He went unto say, “yes the results showed that if we looked at win lose or draw, we lost most of the games but if we looked at the performances we didn’t lose by much and we knew going into this second half we would have a larger budget and we took our time to build the team”.
Quizzed on whether the support staff will increase, Khan responded saying, no but that he has interest from the original Golden Jaguars, Vibert Durdy Butts but the decision to bring him on board is left up to Fabianao but I will strongly recommend he comes on board”.
The Bourda-based club also announced the signing of Brazilian forward Renato Rodrigues, and former Golden Jaguars forward Kevin Beaton, who was on a two-year scholarship at the Bryant & Strahton College in the United States of America.
It was also disclosed that AXE Clothing Apparel and DeSinco Trading under its Degree brand have pledge support to the team.
