5 Guyanese Football Players You Need to Know About

In 2019 the Guyana national football team qualified for the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the first time in the team’s history. Still, as of August 2019, Guyana is №178 in the FIFA Rankings, nearly 100 spots lower than its all-time highest ranking of №86 in November 2010. Despite its inconsistency over the years, Guyana has produced dozens of quality football players who have experienced individual success representing the country and playing for club teams. Here are five of those players:

1. Aubrey David

Although he has most recently represented Trinidad and Tobago in international play, David has played 23 games with the Guyana national team and is a native of Georgetown, Guyana. The 28-year-old defender is currently playing with the first-tier Costa Rica team Deportivo Saprissa and has previously played in Finland, Kazakhstan, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States (where he played for FC Dallas of Major League Soccer).

Although as a defender he is primarily responsible for keeping the ball away from his team’s net, David has scored six goals in 166 career games. He was most effective in this regard with Veikkausliiga in Finland, scoring three goals in 29 games during the 2014 season. His contract with Saprissa expires on June 30, 2020, and, according to the website TransferMarkt, he has a current market value of $285,000.

2. Konata Mannings

A 33-year-old native of Georgetown, Mannings has played in 33 games for the Guyana senior men’s national team, scoring three goals. The forward scored his first goal for the team in a 2–2 tie with Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 2008. He also scored six goals in 20 games across the junior levels (Under-23, -21, -20, -17, and -15 teams).

Unlike David, who is well-traveled and holds dual citizenship with Trinidad and Tobago, Mannings has played the majority of his career with Pele FC in his home country of Guyana. He has, however, been loaned to the North York Astros in Canada. As of 2015, he has been a member of the Guyanese club Fruta Conquerors.

3. J. P. Rodrigues

Having last played in 2014, Rodrigues is a retired Guyanese football defender who represented the national team in 23 contests from 2006 to 2014. He played for the country in qualifying matches for both the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups. In 2014, he was part of the Guyana team that was tasked with playing Mexico, El Salvador, and Costa Rica in the World Cup qualifying group stage.

In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Rodrigues recalled the feeling of representing Guyana and playing Mexico to a commendable 3–1 defeat in front of 80,000 fans, when the largest crowd he had previously played in front of was 17,000. He said of the event, “When we went back to Guyana, we were greeted at the airport. [The fans] acted as if we won, which was nice, but at the same time, we didn’t. We gained a lot of respect to go into Azteca and not get blown out in front of that many people.”

Although Rodrigues was born in Florida and played for US club teams throughout his career, he was able to represent Guyana on the national stage as it was his father’s birthplace.

4. Ricky Shakes

A 34-year-old midfielder born in Brixton, England, Shakes has represented both Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago on the international stage as his father is Guyanese and mother is Trinidadian. In 14 games with the Guyana national team, Shakes has scored five goals. Meanwhile, at the club level in England, he has played for Boreham Wood, Kidderminster, Brentford, and Bristol Rovers. He also played for Bolton Wanderers in two English FA Cup tournaments and is best remembered for scoring a late game-tying goal in his 2005 debut against Tranmere Rovers.

5. Brandon Beresford

An alumnus of Graceland University in the US, Beresford was a member of the Guyana team that recently competed in its first-ever CONCACAF Gold Cup. The 27-year-old midfielder played in the team’s starting lineup and registered a 92 percent pass accuracy during the tournament. Like several other Guyanese national players, Beresford holds dual citizenship. Though he was born in Loma Linda, California, he represented Guyana at the U-20 and U-23 levels before making the senior national team during 2014 World Cup qualification. He has three goals in 21 games with the national team.

Beresford has been playing for Dezembro in Portugal since 2018, and prior to that, he played with Peachtree City MOBA in the US. He has also played for US-based clubs like the Michigan Bucks, Rochester Rhinos, and Des Moines Menace, as well as Canada’s FC London and Guyana’s Slingerz FC.