Top Coach Willing to Rebuild Lone Star

Top Coach Willing to Rebuild Lone Star

---waiting for offers from Liberia

By Omari Jackson
Jackson_omari@hotmail.com

Atlanta, USA: The ever-growing soccer talents in Li

beria and the inability to harness them win or make significant impact in competitions has been one area that has kept top Moroccan-born coach, Youssef Darbaki, wondering why.

If Liberian authorities believe Liberia’s future in soccer lies in the youths, then Coach Darbaki, giving the opportunity, will be able to transform the talents to imminent success, he said in a telephone interview with me, from his base in Minnesota, USA.

“It is a wonder that such massive talents have not been used to make the country proud,” he said, and he did not end there. “Liberia deserves to be among the best in Africa.”

Clearly coach Darbaki is speaking from personal experience. He has one of the impressive records in African soccer history, and he believes Liberian youths deserve better.

Coach Darbaki is presently the head-coach of the Minnesota Twin Stars, and his playing record with clubs in Africa and Europe is inspiring.

He played in Morocco, France, Spain and the United States.

Among the first division clubs he featured back in Morocco, France, Spain and the USA, where he is currently residing was TAS de Casablanca, Matra Racing, UD Marbella and Chicago Power.

He later sojourned to France and played for Matra Racing from 1983-84, and moved on to the Spain, featuring for UD Marbella from 1984-96. He returned to Morocco after the season and featured for TAS de Casablanca in 1987 and by 1989 he was a top flight player with Chicago Power in the United States.

He was a member of the Morocco national team, Atlas Lions, from 1979-82, and remembers with fondness when the team visited Liberia in a friendly match against Lone Star.

Team picture of Minnesota Twin Stars

The late Liberian president, Samuel Doe, a soccer enthusiast was gratified when his invitation to the Kingdom of Morocco resulted favorably and the Moroccans came to Monrovia. The match itself favored the Moroccans despite the hot weather in which the game was played at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium.

The vacuum created by the murder of President Samuel Kanyon Doe, who financially supported the national soccer team has been felt by players and coaches. It was no wonder that the recently deceased ex-national coach Wilfred Lardner, who it had been reported suffered financial hardships, would often say, “Doe died with Liberian football,” according to Coach Kasumu Sillah, in an apparent low-level interest by war-wrecked successive administration officials.

For Coach Youssef Darbaki, the friendly encounter in the eighties was one he had not been able to let go, especially when George Weah and many of his colleagues took European soccer by storm afterwards.

“It was my first time in Liberia,” he remembers with satisfaction, during the interview with me, “the stadium was parked with people and they cheered us on, though the home team was losing.”

Though his memories of Liberia are distant, he remembers his one-day stay in the country, and has increased his knowledge by associating with Liberian soccer players in Minnesota. Presently, there are four Liberian players under his tutelage, who are members of the Minnesota Twin Stars, including Clarence Weah, junior brother of the retired king of the turf, George Weah, Richard Kamara and Andrew Wallace.

In the United States coach Darbaki has managed seven teams, including his present club, Minnesota Twin Stars.

The other clubs are South High (MN 1992-94), Cougars FC (MN 1996-06), Minnesota Select State Team (1996-1999), Minnesota All Star African Team (1996-06), Minnesota Blast (2002-04) and his current club St. Paul Twin Stars, which he started managing in 2005, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.

He said he is overwhelmed by the soccer potential in Liberia and all he needed is sound policies to make them fruitful.