CAS­TRIES, St Lu­cia - For­mer Trinidad and To­ba­go in­ter­na­tion­al Stern John has of­fi­cial­ly re­signed as head coach of the Saint Lu­cia se­nior men’s na­tion­al team, bring­ing an end to his three-and-a-half-year tenure at the helm.

The Saint Lu­cia Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion con­firmed the res­ig­na­tion on Tues­day, with John re­leas­ing an emo­tion­al state­ment ex­press­ing grat­i­tude for his time with the na­tion­al pro­gramme.

“Af­ter three and a half un­for­get­table years, I have made the dif­fi­cult de­ci­sion to step down,” John said. “Saint Lu­cia has be­come much more than a place where I coached foot­ball. It is a coun­try that wel­comed me, chal­lenged me, and gave me the priv­i­lege of work­ing with an in­cred­i­ble group of play­ers, staff, ad­min­is­tra­tors, and sup­port­ers who share a gen­uine pas­sion for the game.”

The for­mer MLS and Pre­mier League strik­er took charge of the na­tion­al team in 2022 with a clear vi­sion, which was to build a cul­ture found­ed on dis­ci­pline, pro­fes­sion­al­ism, be­lief, and long-term de­vel­op­ment.

Dur­ing his tenure, John over­saw im­por­tant vic­to­ries, in­te­grat­ed new tal­ent in­to the na­tion­al pro­gramme, and worked to im­prove the team’s com­pet­i­tive­ness on the re­gion­al stage.

“I leave with pride in the progress made and with con­fi­dence that the foun­da­tion now in place can sup­port con­tin­ued growth in the years ahead,” he stat­ed.

John re­served spe­cial praise for his play­ers, many of whom he watched de­vel­op both as foot­ballers and as young men through­out his tenure.

“Watch­ing many of you grow as foot­ballers, and more im­por­tant­ly as young men, has been one of the most re­ward­ing parts of this jour­ney,” he said. “Con­tin­ue be­liev­ing in your­selves, con­tin­ue de­mand­ing ex­cel­lence from one an­oth­er, and nev­er lose sight of what is pos­si­ble for Saint Lu­cian foot­ball. The fu­ture be­longs to you.”

The for­mer Colum­bus Crew and Birm­ing­ham City for­ward al­so ac­knowl­edged the un­wa­ver­ing sup­port of the Saint Lu­cian faith­ful, de­scrib­ing their pas­sion as a con­stant source of mo­ti­va­tion.

“Whether you sup­port­ed us from the stands, fol­lowed us from afar, cel­e­brat­ed our vic­to­ries, or chal­lenged us to be bet­ter af­ter dif­fi­cult mo­ments, your pas­sion nev­er went un­no­ticed. Foot­ball be­longs to the peo­ple, and your be­lief in the team has al­ways been a source of mo­ti­va­tion.”

John ex­tend­ed thanks to SLFA Pres­i­dent Lyn­don Coop­er, the Ex­ec­u­tive Com­mit­tee, and his back­room staff, while con­firm­ing his com­mit­ment to en­sur­ing a smooth tran­si­tion for the na­tion­al pro­gramme.

“Al­though my chap­ter as Head Coach has come to an end, my re­spect and af­fec­tion for Saint Lu­cia will not,” he con­clud­ed. “I will al­ways re­main a sup­port­er of Saint Lu­cia foot­ball, and I look for­ward to watch­ing the play­ers and the coun­try achieve even greater suc­cess.”

The search for John’s suc­ces­sor is now ex­pect­ed to be­gin, with the SLFA yet to an­nounce an in­ter­im ap­point­ment or time­line for the re­cruit­ment process.

CMC