English-born Middlesbrough defender Justin Hoyte says he hopes to fit into the T&T squad as he prepares to join this country’s national team for the first time this weekend ahead of next week’s back-to-back friendlies against Romania and Estonia.
The former England youth international will meet the T&T squad in London before departing for Bucharest on Saturday morning for the friendly international against Romania at the National Arena on June.
Hoyte, 28, is coming off a season with “Boro” in the English Championship Division during which he made 34 appearances. Prior to joining “Boro” in 2008, he also made 34 appearances for Arsenal in the English top flight with a loan spell at Sunderland during that period.
Looking ahead to the next week in the T&T camp, Hoyte said he was hopeful of making a good impression and looking forward to making new teammates and friends.
“Hopefully, I will fit in perfect with the other players and do enough in training for the manager to allow me to make my debut against Romania,” Hoyte said.
“Then, hopefully, I’ll do well in the games to then be picked to be part of the T&T squad for the Gold Cup.”
Hoyte made 18 appearances for England’s Under-21 team and also wore England colours at the Under-16, U-19 and U-20 levels. He declined an invitation to join T&T prior to the 2006 World Cup appearance in Germany. But almost seven years later he plans on doing his part to bolster the current T&T squad.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to show my talent on an international level and hopefully be part of the T&T team which will do the nation proud in the Gold Cup.”
“I’m really happy and feel honoured to firstly be selected by the coaches and then to be joining up with the team. I unfortunately wasn’t able to meet up for the last set of friendly games but I’m happy that I can finally be part of the team and I’m definitely looking forward to the two upcoming matches over the next week,” Hoyte added.
Part of the T&T squad including the home-based professionals as well as Turkey-based forward Darryl Roberts will depart Port-of-Spain on Thursday evening for London where the entire squad will overnight on Friday before leaving for Bucharest on Saturday.
Defence Force striker Devorn Jorsling has been added to the 19-man squad with Philadelphia Union midfielder Keon Daniel unavailable and Vietnam-based midfielder Hughtun Hector ruled out due to injury. Vancouver Whitecaps defender Carlyle Mitchell is also out because of injury.
No other additions were made to the squad due to the late injury matters and the insufficient time for travel visas to be processed for Romania.