Shock and disbelief was the prevailing sentiment expressed by players, teammates and friends of deceased T&T senior men’s team footballer Shahdon Winchester yesterday.
Winchester was one of four people killed in a vehicular accident along the south-bound lane of the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway near Gasparillo yesterday morning. Winchester was just 27-years-old and leaves to mourn a two-year-old daughter and a fiancee. He also leaves behind his mother and two younger siblings.
The news has rocked the national football community, including T&T Football Association president William Wallace, who is in Qatar as a guest of FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the FIFA Club World Cup.
“I am still in a deep state of shock and sadness. I managed Shahdon during my time with the senior team and what I experienced was a young man that was humble, well-mannered, soft-spoken and an individual with big dreams and ambitions,” Wallace said.
“To his mother, your son was a fine young man and we are grateful for the memories and positive influences he would have had on others.”
Winchester made 27 appearances and scored six goals for the senior men’s team since making his debut as a promising 18-year-old in 2010 under then-head coach Russell Latapy. It was the beginning of the road to fulfilling the immense promise showed by Princes Town native, who came through the ranks of the national youth teams, starting with the national under-15 team.
It was on the under-15 team that he and former national youth team and W Connection FC teammate Jerrel Britto first met and initiated a 13-year friendship.
Britto told Guardian Media Sports that they grew so close that teammates began referring to the inseparable pair as ‘Black and White’.
“When we were playing school football, I was at QRC and he was at Naps, the topic at the time was that these two young footballers are doing so well for their schools. I ended up showing up to a national under 15 screening and he was there and from that, we just ended up meshing,” Britto said.
“It was really him that persuaded to come to Connection. One of the players labelled us Black and White because of the two dogs on the label of the ‘Black and White’ (whiskey) bottle. We just built this relationship and became inseparable.”
He added, “Shahdon Winchester to me he had a unique personality. He was a guy that you could always call and speak to and no matter what he was going through he would always give you that listening ear. I hope he rests in eternal peace, we’ll forever be Black and White, he’ll forever be my brother. It’s tragic but this is life and we have to accept as it comes but I will forever love him.”
For current national senior team captain Khaleem Hyland, coming to terms with the loss of a fellow Soca Warrior is difficult. Hyland, who plies his trade at Al-Faisaly FC in Saudi Arabia, called it “just a terrible way to lose a life.”
“It’s even harder for us because Shahdon was one of us. He was our brother and this could be any one of us. I send all my prayers to his mother and the family members of the others who lost their lives,” Hyland said.
Winchester, who would have turned 28 on January 8, was representing W Connection in the current TT Pro League season which began last week. This after having represented a number of foreign-based clubs in Mexico, Vietnam, Azerbaijan and Finland, where he played most recently for Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho (SJK) in November 2018.
This situation may have been about to change according to another Soca Warriors teammate Sheldon Bateau, who told Guardian Media Sports that he was organising a trial at a new team for Winchester.
“A few days ago I messaged him because an agent was looking for a striker and I thought that Shahdon would have been the perfect player to fit that profile so I reached out to him and I put him on to the agent. So to know that I was trying to put things in place for him to get back outside of Trinidad and make a better life for himself and for his family, and this has taken place is very sad.”
The T&T Pro League has postponed tomorrow’s round one fixture between W Connection and Point Fortin Civic Centre as a sign of respect for the now deceased player.
