Boro’s Hazel set to face £30million man
Scarborough Athletic striker Jacob Hazel will be tackling a £30million man this week as he furthers his international career.
The 23-year-old has been selected in the St Kitts & Nevis squad to play in friendly clashes against Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s Armenia on Sunday.
That game is followed on Wednesday by an outing in Georgia against their national side.
Hazel, who made his international debut against Estonia in November, is really looking forward to what will be another amazing experience.
“The game against Georgia is live on Eurosport, so I’ve made sure that my mum and dad are recording it,” he said.
“I’m hoping that Mkhitaryan is playing in the Armenia game, just to see if I can actually get near him.
“All the lads will be flocking around him at the end of the game because they’ll want his shirt.
“It will just be another great experience for me, I’ve had a few of them while I’ve been involved with St Kitts & Nevis.
“I was on the bench when we played at El Salvador in the World Cup qualifiers, there were 40,000 fans at the game.
“We got knocked out that time, but I’m only young so I’ve probably got another two World Cups in me.”
Hazel is following in the footsteps of his dad Des Hazel, who also represented St Kitts towards the end of his career.
He added: “I was originally asked to play by Zeph Thomas, who I am good mates with.
“He has played a lot of games for St Kitts and he asked if I wouldn’t mind him passing my number on.
“My dad played for them as well when Cec Podd was manager, he qualified because both of his parents came from St Kitts.”
After his international exploits, Hazel will switch his attention back to banging in the goals for Boro.
“I’m going to have a sit down with the gaffer (Steve Kittrick) and get things sort- ed for the season,” he added.
“I really enjoyed it at Scarborough last season, it is an exciting time for the club.
“The play-off semi-final defeat against Ossett Town was just a game too far for us.
“Hopefully we’ll bounce back from that and go one better next season.”