Football: FANTASY FOOTBALL; Scot Paul lands dream job in paradise island.
Byline: By IAN ORRSCOT Paul Crosbie has landed a fantasy football job for real after failing to make the grade as a player. Crosbie is national coach of the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.
And he is determined to haul them up the rankings after they were listed 203 rd out of 204 FIFA nations.
At 27, Crosbie is one of the youngest international managers in world football and voted in the World Player of the Year award.
But just a few months before he landed his ticket to paradise, he was dumped on the dole from his coaching job with Wimbledon.
The former schoolboy star resorted to scouring the internet for jobs and was lucky to spot a vacancy with the Turks and Caicos national team, 575 miles south east of Miami.
Crosbie applied for the job and within a fortnight was inter-viewed and later offered the post. Now Dumfries-born Crosbie is pinching himself as he gets his minnows team into shape for the 2006 World Cup campaign.
His dream job enabled him to rub shoulders with the world's greatest coaches at the FIFA World Player of the Year Awards as the islands' representative.
He nominated his hero, Celtic striker Henrik Larsson, as one of his three choices.
Crosbie admitted his rollercoaster ride from the dole to thetropics belongs in the realms of fantasy.
The Turks and Caicos Islands, also known as the Everything Islands, cover just 193 square miles, with a population of 20,000.
Crosbie said: ``It wastoughwhen I was made redundant but there were others worse off than me.
``I was unemployed and looking for anything on the internet when I saw the job advertised. I went for it because there was nothing available for me in the UK.
``I only learned about the Turks and Caicos Islands two weeks before because I overheard twoblokes talking about them. My friends can't believe how lucky I have been. I can't believe it myself but I'm not complaining!
``My friends were convinced I had come here to be a fisherman and couldn't believe it when I told them I'd be voting for the World Player of the Year.
``Even I found it surreal to see my name alongside Sven Goran Erikssonand Giovanni Trapattoni.
``Thierry Henry was my first choiceand Henrik Larssonsecond.''
Crosbiewastipped for full international honours as an 11-year-old with Leicester and Aston Villa.
But he failed to fulfil hispotential and was cast into the doldrums of non-league football while also representing Leicestershire County.
While seeing out his career, he earned his preliminary coaching badge from the FA and was appointed coach at Wimbledon with PR responsibilities.
Butafterashorttimein London, he fell victim to cost-cutting and was thrown on to the scrapheap.
Now his career is back on track and he even has plans to take his team to Hampden for a dream fixture against his beloved Scotland.
He said: ``There is a big job to do here. We have only been members of FIFA since 2000 and were formed in 1996.
``We are preparing for our first World Cup qualifying campaign and have been drawn with Haiti.
``It's important to give our players international experience.
``I'm even trying to organise a friendly against Scotland we must improve our FIFA ranking.''
CAPTION(S):
I'LL TURK THAT JOB: Paul Crosbie, left, is coach of the Turks and Caicos Islands
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| Title Annotation: | Sport |
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| Publication: | Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland) |
| Date: | Dec 19, 2003 |
| Words: | 562 |
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