Vet­er­an St Lu­cian de­fend­er, Eli­jah Joseph has been re­signed to a long term con­tract by for­mer T&T Pro League cham­pi­on, W Con­nec­tion. This was con­firmed by club own­er David John-Williams in a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day. The 35-year-old Joseph has been with the Cou­va-based club since its in­tro­duc­tion in­to pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball in T&T ten years ago and was one of four play­ers whose con­tracts ex­pired on De­cem­ber 31 and who were of­fered a new deal. The three oth­ers play­ers who were of­fered new con­tracts and re-signed with the club in­cludes dis­card­ed na­tion­al mid­field­er Ro­mauld Aguillera, Keryn Navar­ro and Brazil­ian de­fend­er Re­na­to Pereira.

Com­ment­ing on the sign­ings, John-Williams said that he was very pleased that the four play­ers who were of­fered new deals had signed again with the club. "All our oth­er play­ers are un­der con­tract un­til the end of the 2010 sea­son in­clud­ing ex­pe­ri­enced play­ers An­drei Pacheco, Clyde Leon, Jan-Michael Williams, Mar­vin Phillip and Jonathan Frias. How­ev­er, John-Williams hint­ed that both Williams and Phillip could be on the move be­fore the start of the sea­son in April. "Both Williams and Phillip are un­der con­tract with us un­til the end of the com­ing sea­son, but there is a pos­si­bil­i­ty that we could see the play­ers go­ing abroad or sign­ing with oth­er clubs," said John-Williams.

The W con­nec­tion boss added that he was al­so anx­ious about left foot­ed de­fend­er Jo­evin Jones, the son of for­mer "Strike Squad" mid­field­er Kelvin Jones. "He (Jones) is on­ly 17 years and has shown a great deal of po­ten­tial and along with the oth­er young play­ers like Ryan Fred­er­ick, Shah­don Win­ches­ter and Hughton Hec­tor we have a lot to look for­ward too." Strik­er An­dre Tou­s­saint who en­joyed a good start to the 2009 sea­son be­fore it was cur­tailed by in­jury was one of four play­ers not of­fered a new deal af­ter his con­tract ex­pired and has since signed with Dig­i­cel Pro League cham­pi­ons, bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic. The oth­er play­ers re­leased by W Con­nec­tion are Brazil­ians, Ig­or San­tos and Williams Sil­va de Oliv­e­ria and mid­field­er Kelvin Mod­este.

Joe Pub­lic tar­gets De Oliv­e­ria

For­mer W Con­nec­tion left back William Sil­va de Oliv­e­ria, who had a brief stint with US Ma­jor League Soc­cer club, Chica­go Fire two sea­sons ago is a tar­get for Dig­i­cel Pro League cham­pi­on Joe Pub­lic. Na­tion­al se­nior team goal­keep­er, Mar­vin Phillip of W Con­nec­tion and Un­der-20 cus­to­di­an Glen­roy Samuel of Unit­ed Petrotrin are al­so said to be tar­gets of "East­ern Li­ons" coach, 29-year-old Derek King who led his club to a his­toric cap­ture of five ti­tles dur­ing the 2009 cam­paign. With Colom­bian goal­keep­er Ale­jan­dro Figueroa mak­ing the switch from Joe Pub­lic, af­ter win­ning five tro­phies in one sea­son to Ma Pau where he will link up with for­mer coach Michael Mc Comie, King is said to be keen to add the duo to his ros­ter.

Ma Pau adds de­fend­er Thomas

Ma Pau has con­clud­ed its off-sea­son sign­ings with the ad­di­tion of for­mer bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic de­fend­er Keyeno Thomas, 32, and the per­ma­nent sign­ings of for­mer loan sign­ings, Kevin Moli­no and Mekeil Williams. The ad­di­tion of the trio which was com­plet­ed yes­ter­day car­ries the num­ber of sign­ings for Ma Pau so far this off-sea­son to nine play­ers. The oth­er signees in­clude Joe Pub­lic duo, Ale­jan­dro Figueroa and Seon Pow­ers along with the for­mer Cli­co San Juan Jabloteh quar­tet of De­von Jamer­son, the son of ex-na­tion­al mid­field­er Ker­ry Jamer­son, El­ton John, Lester "Corn Curls" Pelti­er and Joel Rus­sell.

Reached for com­ment Ma Pau as­sis­tant coach, An­gus Eve boast­ed that the club was de­light­ed to have se­cured the ser­vices of the ex­pe­ri­enced Thomas along with Moli­no and Williams who have all signed long term deals. "Keyeno is a very ex­pe­ri­enced guy, who has rep­re­sent­ed the na­tion­al se­nior team for a long time now and we are sure that he add more qual­i­ty to our team as well as be­ing a men­tor to the younger play­ers." The hard-tack­ling Thomas, was said to be out of con­tract at Joe Pub­lic on De­cem­ber 31 and was of­fered a new deal which he did not ac­cept.

With re­gards to for­mer Cli­co San Juan Jabloteh play­ers and na­tion­al Un­der-20 duo, Moli­no and Williams Eve said their loan sign­ings from the 2009 sea­son have now been made per­ma­nent. Two oth­er key sign­ings for Ma Pau are strik­er An­tho­ny Wolfe and na­tion­al Un­der-20 de­fend­er, Cur­tis Gon­za­les, who have both re­signed with the club on long term deals as well. Ma Pau will kick off its 2010 pre-sea­son train­ing with open tri­als to play­ers hop­ing to se­cure places on the club ju­nior and se­nior team ros­ters on Feb­ru­ary 1.