Bolton Sprinters new look squad
Today, we take a look at the current Bolton Sprinters ahead of the new season. Bolton will hope to get back to the Premier League, pioneered by new owner, Usain Bolt's ambitious plan to only sign players with Caribbean heritage. There are 28 or so separate footballing nations in the Caribbean with an approximate population of forty million people. Cuba is the most populated island with over a quarter of the entire Caribbean population while Montserrat is the smallest, with a population of just five thousand people.
Bolton Sprinters have signed players from 11 of these islands and below we will feature a brief profile of each.
We start with the nation of both owner, Usain Bolt, and manager, John Barnes (although the latter represented England in international football).
Jamaica
Name: Ricardo Gardner
Age: 34
Position: DL/AML
Signing fee: £0
International Caps/Goals: 109/9
Notable Clubs: Bolton Wanderers
Name: Khari Stephenson
Age: 32
Position: MC
Signing fee: £0
International Caps/Goals: 28/3
Notable Clubs: Various MLS Clubs
Name: Nyron Nosworthy
Age: 32
Position: DC
Signing fee: £100,000
International Caps/Goals: 10/0
Notable Clubs: Gillingham, Sunderland, Watford
Name: Ricardo Fuller
Age: 33
Position: ST
Signing fee: £0
International Caps/Goals: 73/9
Notable Clubs: Stoke, Preston, Crystal Palace
Name: Adrian Mariappa
Age: 26
Position: DC/DR
Signing fee: £4,000,000
International Caps/Goals: 12/0
Notable Clubs: Reading, Watford
Name: Andre Blake
Age: 22
Position: GK
Signing fee: £0
International Caps/Goals: 0/0
Notable Clubs:
There are several current Jamaican internationals who were playing for Bolton before Usain Bolt's takeover of the club, we will quickly recap them below.
Name: Jermaine Beckford
Age: 29
Position: ST
Signing fee: -
International Caps/Goals: 5/1
Notable Clubs: Leeds United, Everton, Leicester
Name: Darren Pratley
Age: 28
Position: MC/AMC
Signing fee: -
International Caps/Goals: 0/0
Notable Clubs: Swansea City
Name: Tyrone Mears *
Age: 30
Position: DR
Signing fee: -
International Caps/Goals: 1/0
Notable Clubs: Preston, Derby, Marseille
There was notable confusion over the heritage of Tyrone Mears. In 2010/11 he was called up and played for the Jamaican national team (by John Barnes) under the impression that his father hailed from the Caribbean island. It was later proven that Mears' father was actually from Sierra Leone, rendering him unable to take part in further competition for Jamaica. For the sake of this blog, we have included Mears' profile with Jamaica as Usain Bolt and John Barnes have explicitly stated that Mears will continue to play for Bolton for the foreseeable future.
Name: Marvin Sordell *
Age: 22
Position: ST
Signing fee: -
International Caps/Goals: 0/0
Notable Clubs: Watford
While still registered for England at this time, Sordell has indicated that he is looking into his own Jamaican heritage and if offered the chance to play for the Jamaican national team, he will look to do so.
Bolton have signed a number of players individual nations that we will now look at.
Bermuda
Name: Nakhi Wells
Age: 23
Position: ST
Signing fee: £2,600,000
International Caps/Goals: 6/2
Notable Clubs: Bradford Town
Curaçao
Name: Shelton Martis
Age: 30
Position: DC
Signing fee: £0
International Caps/Goals: 3/0
Notable Clubs: Excelsior, West Brom
St Kitts and Nevis
Name: Romaine Sawyers
Age: 21
Position: AMC
Signing fee: £675,000
International Caps/Goals: 0/0
Notable Clubs: West Brom
Martinique
Name: Jean Sylvain-Babin
Age: 26
Position: DRC/DM
Signing fee: £4,000,000
International Caps/Goals: 3/0
Notable Clubs: Alcoron
Grenada
Name: Jason Roberts
Age: 35
Position: ST
Signing fee: £100,000
International Caps/Goals: 22/12
Notable Clubs: West Brom, Wigan, Blackburn
Antigua and Barbuda
Name: Mikele Leigertwood
Age: 30
Position: DM/MC
Signing fee: £750,000
International Caps/Goals: 22/12
Notable Clubs: Crystal Palace, Sheffield United, Reading
Montserrat
Name: Donervon Daniels
Age: 19
Position: DC
Signing fee: £210,000
International Caps/Goals: 0/0
Notable Clubs: West Brom
John Barnes has signed three players from the island of Haiti. Haiti is significant in the Caribbean with French as the dominant language as opposed to English or Spanish. Haiti also has the misfortune of being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Haiti
Name: Yves Desmarets
Age: 34
Position: AML
Signing fee: £0
International Caps/Goals: 0/0
Notable Clubs: Vit. Guimaraes, Belenenses
Name: Johny Placide
Age: 25
Position: GK
Signing fee: £1,300,000
International Caps/Goals: 10/0
Notable Clubs: Le Havre, Reims
Name: Jean-Eudes Maurice
Age: 27
Position: AML/ST
Signing fee: £850,000
International Caps/Goals: 14/10
Notable Clubs: Paris Saint-Germain
Barbados
Name: Emerson Boyce
Age: 33
Position: DR
Signing fee: £1,000,000
International Caps/Goals: 4/0
Notable Clubs: Wigan, Luton, Crystal Palace
Name: Nick Blackman *
Age: 23
Position: AMRL/ST
Signing fee: £3,250,000
International Caps/Goals: 0/0
Notable Clubs: Blackburn, Sheffield United, Reading
Name: Jamal Blackman *
Age: 19
Position: GK
Signing fee: £900,000
International Caps/Goals: 0/0
Notable Clubs: Chelsea
* Both Jamal and Nick Blackman (not related) are able to claim heritage from Barbados and may choose to play for the Barbadian national team in the future, something which Usain Bolt has urged them both to do.
The final nation that John Barnes and Usain Bolt have elected to pick players from is the home of coaches Russel Latapy and Dwight Yorke, Trinidad and Tobago. With five players from these islands, they are only beaten to a majority by Jamaica, whose population is almost double their own.
Name: Jlloyd Samuel
Age: 32
Position: DL
Signing fee: £0
International Caps/Goals: 2/0
Notable Clubs: Bolton Wanderers, Aston Villa, Esteghlal
Name: Kenwyne Jones
Age: 28
Position: ST
Signing fee: £5,250,000
International Caps/Goals: 52/7
Notable Clubs: Southampton, Sunderland, Stoke
Name: Carlos Edwards
Age: 34
Position: DR/AMR
Signing fee: £500,000
International Caps/Goals: 87/4
Notable Clubs: Wrexham, Sunderland, Ipswich
Name: Khaleem Hyland
Age: 24
Position: DM
Signing fee: £2,000,000
International Caps/Goals: 33/3
Notable Clubs: Zulte Waregem, RC Genk
Name: Densill Theobold
Age: 31
Position: MC/MR
Signing fee: £0
International Caps/Goals: 57/2
Notable Clubs: Falkirk, Dempo, Caledonia AIA
Having signed 20 players in a single transfer window (and released a similar amount) and spent close to £30,000,000 on new players, John Barnes may struggle to gel the players at his disposal. However, with players such as Jlloyd Samuel and Ricardo Gardner returning to their former club, coupled with the vast experience of Kenwyne Jones, Jason Roberts and Ricardo Fuller, there is reason to believe that Bolton Sprinters will race to glory this season.
The other first team players not mentioned in this article are Zat Knight (who retains his role as captain), Jay Spearing, Mark Davies, Rob Hall and American duo Tim Ream and Stuart Holden.