For­mer T&T in­ter­na­tion­al Mar­lon Ro­jas has been ap­point­ed as the new coach of Pre­mier Di­vi­sion foot­ball team Som­er­set Ea­gles. The 31-year-old suc­ceeds Ken­ny Thomp­son who last month quit the White Hill Field club to be­come the Di­rec­tor of Foot­ball at First Di­vi­sion BAA Wan­der­ers. Ro­jas' task in hand has not been made any eas­i­er by the loss of key play­ers Keishen Bean (North Vil­lage), Antwan Rus­sell (PHC), Aquino Grant (PHC) and Dan­vers Sey­mour (Som­er­set Tro­jans) who all left the club in the wake of Thomp­son's de­par­ture.

But club pres­i­dent Marc Bean, a Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor, be­lieves the tough tack­ling mid­field­er is the right man to steady the ship and main­tain Ea­gles' top-flight sta­tus this sea­son. "Know­ing Mar­lon his main fo­cus will be on coach­ing the team and get­ting them play­ing some at­trac­tive and ef­fec­tive foot­ball."

A for­mer Ma­jor League Soc­cer (MLS) pro­fes­sion­al at Re­al Salt Lake, Ro­jas cut his coach­ing teeth with the Ea­gles Un­der-18 team who he led to the di­vi­sion ti­tle two years ago. And with the nu­cle­us of that side now form­ing the back­bone of the Ea­gles se­nior team, Ro­jas was deemed the ob­vi­ous in-house can­di­date to re­place the pop­u­lar Thomp­son.