Caribbean Life, August 21-27, 2020 33
By George Alleyne
From representing his country
against Bermuda for the first time
at age 15, Barbadian footballer
Thierry Gale has now, three years
later, catapulted himself into the
professional game in Europe by
signing a deal with Hungarian
Club Budapest Honvéd.
According to Barbados media
reports, the speedy Barbadian forward
will from this year be on
a three-year professional contract
with the with eight-time Hungarian
Cup champions for an undisclosed
fee.
The teenager who is already a
senior on the Barbados national
team has scored twice for his
country and has so impressed as
a dangerous striker that his play
attracted attention of the Hungarian
top team.
“This is what I was waiting for
my whole life,” the youngster said,
adding that playing in the national
team shaped him for the rigors of
the professional, “as a junior, it
wasn’t so rough but in the senior
team, it was more difficult because
I didn’t have many chances to play
because I was young. So, I just
come off the bench sometimes but
I didn’t give up, I just kept working
hard and then earned my play.”
He also credited the stern and
intense training that his father
Dwayne Gale, himself a former
national footballer put him
through.
“My father is tough. Like sometimes
if I play and I don’t perform
or I argue with the referee or something,
he would ‘kill’ me at times
but otherwise, he is very nice, very
good, we are very close.”
The elder Gale who debuted for
the national team, Barbados Tridents,
and 16 and even had a stint
with a European club overseas
said he had been training his son
for 13 years since the youngster
indicated a love for the game at
age-five.
“He always wanted to be a professional
footballer,” the father
said.
“I always tell Thierry you should
keep rising to a certain occasion
every year. So, if you do 50 percent
in 2013, make sure you do 60 percent
in 2014. The point is year by
year you should keep improving
and developing.”
Thierry Gale, in yellow, in action during a Barbados CONCACAF championship fi xture.
Photo by George Alleyne
Young Barbadian
footballer now a pro
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