For­mer na­tion­al coach and tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor of lo­cal foot­ball Lin­coln Phillips was ap­point­ed as an Am­bas­sador of the North Amer­i­ca Tal­ent Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and Play­er Pool Pro­gramme (TIPP).

His du­ties will be– Im­prove pub­lic aware­ness and fa­mil­iar­i­ty with the North Amer­i­ca pro­gramme (TIPP) and it’s mis­sion: Rep­re­sent TIPP pro­gramme at events: As­sist re­cruit­ment of play­ers to rep­re­sent T&T: Com­mu­ni­cate the val­ue of the pro­gramme and what it means for a play­er to rep­re­sent his/her na­tion­al team: Work close­ly with the TIPP Di­rec­tors: Build rap­port with fu­ture scouts and as­sist in in­creas­ing TIPP’s scout pool: and Main­tain a pos­i­tive im­age of the TTFA and TIPP pro­gramme at all times.

In an im­me­di­ate re­sponse, Phillips said- “I am de­light­ed to be an am­bas­sador for my coun­try. I ac­cept the of­fer and pledge to do my best to see Trinidad and To­ba­go get back on track.”

His ap­point­ment fol­lows that of Sha­ka His­lop, al­so as a TTFA Am­bas­sador which was an­nounced in De­cem­ber.

Pres­i­dent of the TTFA Williams Wal­lace said: “We are in­deed pleased that Lin­coln Phillips has ac­cept­ed our of­fer to be ap­point­ed as an Am­bas­sador for our Tal­ent Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and Play­er Pool pro­gramme.”

He added, “He has a wealth of knowl­edge and ex­pe­ri­ence and is high­ly re­gard­ed in the re­gion, par­tic­u­lar­ly North Amer­i­ca where he con­tin­ues to play an ac­tive role in the sport. We cer­tain­ly look for­ward to his con­tri­bu­tions and ad­vice as we set out on dis­cov­er­ing new tal­ent and re­cruit­ing play­ers to rep­re­sent our coun­try through this pro­gramme which has al­ready be­gun to bring pos­i­tives with the ad­di­tions of a few play­ers to our Un­der 20 Women’s Team.”

Chair­man of the Tech­ni­cal Com­mit­tee of TTFA Kei­th Look Loy said there could be no bet­ter am­bas­sador for T&T foot­ball and TTFA’s scout­ing pro­gramme in North Amer­i­ca than Lin­coln Phillips.

"His foot­ball his­to­ry is root­ed in both our coun­try and in the USA. He ex­ploits on and off the field through­out his life bring in­stant cred­i­bil­i­ty and sta­tus to TIPP. And his will­ing­ness to as­so­ciate with our ini­tia­tive is fur­ther ev­i­dence that we are on the cor­rect path.”

In the area of soc­cer camps in Amer­i­ca, “The Lin­coln Phillips Soc­cer School” (1975-2004) pro­duced many US Na­tion­al Youth Team play­ers while oth­ers went on to re­ceive schol­ar­ships and play at top Uni­ver­si­ties. Lin­coln’s “Top- Flight Goal­keep­ing Acad­e­my” pro­duced some of the na­tion’s top goal­keep­ers and goal­keep­ing coach­es. Among those in­flu­enced by Phillip’s coach­ing in­clude Unit­ed Soc­cer Coach­es Ho­n­our Award re­cip­i­ent Mike Cur­ry, for­mer MLS goal­keep­er Za­ck Thorn­ton and cur­rent US Mil­i­tary Acad­e­my Head Coach Rus­sel Payne.

Phillips was al­so ap­point­ed a FI­FA Goal­keep­er In­struc­tor (1995-96) con­duct­ing coach­ing clin­ics and work­shops for FI­FA in the Caribbean and Asia.