

Posted by

Daniel Rouse ,

December 15, 2011 Email Daniel Rouse

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Last Wednesday, Toronto FC unveiled the signing of the wonderfully-named Reggie Lambe on a free transfer. The Bermudan winger’s contract at Ipswich Town expired over the summer and director of player development Paul Mariner, who scored nearly 100 goals for Ipswich Town during his playing career, revealed that Lambe had been on his radar for some time.



“It took [TFC manager] Aron [Winter] all of 20 minutes to work out that he’s got something,” Mariner said of the 20 year-old’s trial.



The day after the acquisition of Lambe, Paul Mariner revealed his ambitions to secure emerging talent from the island of Bermuda. “We see lots of potential in Bermuda – there’s a lot of very, very good young players.”



But what do we know about this British territory? When Mariner is washed ashore, will he find an island bountiful with promising youth players ready to plunder? Or will he find a chest empty because somebody got to it first, or, when it comes to Bermudan football talent, the island is arid? Mariner certainly believes hidden treasures will sail into the BMO Field: “the outlooks for them [progressing in football] are very limited and we just feel we might be able to fast-track a couple of guys further down the line and that we can help TFC and hopefully help international football.”



When you think of Bermuda, what springs to mind are tailored shorts worn by people who like to go on safari. You may also be aware of the Bermuda Triangle: the area of the North Atlantic Ocean inside the points of Miami, Puerto Rico and Bermuda, which has supposedly swallowed up a suspicious amount of boats and planes over the years.



Bermuda is about 850 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has a population of 70,000 people – the same number as where I was bought up. However, while my hometown currently boasts five players (Joe Hart, Billy Jones, Dave Edwards, Danny Guthrie and Steven Fletcher) in the English Premier League, Bermuda has just had two since the league re-branded in February 1992: Kyle Lightbourne with Coventry City and, more successfully, Shaun Goater.



The Goat, a nickname that was coined at Manchester City, became a legend at the Lancashire club where he accumulated 103 goals in 189 starts (most of which, I’m sure, came off his backside or shin), and he is my favourite player of all time. The high regard the striker is held in Bermuda is reflected in the fact that the country holds an annual Shaun Goater Day.



Kyle Lightbourne did forge a good career outside of the Premier League: spearheading Walsall’s attack in the mid-90s and also making notable contributions at Stoke City and Macclesfield Town.



In a similar vein to Lightbourne and Goater, Clyde Best has also been very much involved in developing talent in the country. Best is a hero at West Ham United, where he spent seven seasons in the late-sixties to mid-seventies, before forging a career abroad which saw him spend some of his later years at Toronto Blizzard.



Bermudan players who may be familiar to soccer fans in North America are Khano Smith, who played MLS football with New England Revolution and New York Red Bulls, and also Tyrell Burgess who was released from Vancouver Whitecaps two years ago after just one solitary season.



Bermuda’s record of football players “making it” is far from shameful. Shrewsbury is a town based in the middle of England and it is close to many teams in league football; Bermuda, by contrast, is an island close to nothing but shipwrecks and bits of plane if you believe the Bermuda Triangle stories.



But progress of football in Bermuda in recent years is apparent. Chief club side Bermuda Hogges made an encouraging mid-table finish in the Mid-Atlantic Division of the USL Player Development League this year, while the international side posted a 2-1 win over Trinidad and Tobago in October in a 2014 World Cup qualification bid which saw them just fall short of the third round.



With ex-players continuing to work hard in youth football on the island, the improvement of both Bermuda Hogges and the international side, and now TFC’s involvement, Reggie Lambe could be joined by young and talented compatriots sooner rather than later.

