Thomas attracting overseas interest
DUNBEHOLDEN FC team manager Paul Christie said there was local and international interest in the club’s Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) leading striker Dean-Andre Thomas during the January transfer window. But although none of the deals materialised, Christie does not expect the player to stay at the St Catherine club much longer and anticipates that he will be making a move overseas in the summer.
“I have got interest from Malaysia, Costa Rica, Canada, and USA, and I was told someone would have called me from Belgium, but it was 5:50 p.m. on the last day (Friday) of the transfer window, and I have not got a call from Belgium. But people expressed serious interest in DeanAndre, but documentation didn’t exchange hands,” Christie told The Gleaner.
“Goals win matches, and he has been scoring goals, and they are mindful of his age (23) that he is still under 25 years old. So I think it is just a matter of time. I don’t expect Dean-Andre to stop scoring goals for us. His game has developed, he has improved in most areas, and he is even better than last season. It is only a matter of time. Somebody will pick him up.
“It is a real possibility that you are seeing the final days of DeanAndre in the RSPL. If it does not happen now, it will happen in the summer.”
NO LOCAL INTEREST
Thomas, who netted eight goals in his first full stint in the league last season, sits atop the goal scoring chart with 12, and Christie said that the former Brazil FC player, who flirted with joining Harbour View and Mount Pleasant before ending up at Waterhouse, has no interest in joining another local club.
“Even locally, I have felt some interest, but I don’t pay a lot of attention to the local interest,” Christie said. “This is a player I got free from Waterhouse. Waterhouse gave that player a letter without giving him an opportunity. He played against UWI on match day one and created a buzz but did not find the back of the net.
“[Glendon] ‘Admiral’ Bailey saw some talent in him, but when Donovan Duckie took up the reins at Waterhouse in January (2018), he terminated him without playing him in a game, and the administration terminated a 20-year-old player without giving him an opportunity.
“Now I see Waterhouse approaching us for Dean-Andre Thomas. Mount Pleasant offered him a sweetheart deal, but the player is grounded. These are clubs that rejected the player, and the player is adamant that he is not leaving the club. He said [Dunbeholden] believed in him when no one else did, and his dream is to leave
Dunbeholden and play in Europe and help his mother.”
“It is a real possibility that you are seeing the final days of Dean-Andre in the RSPL. If it does not happen now, it will happen in the summer.”