HFX Wanderers prove Saturday night’s all right for soccer with Elton John signing

Elton John will be pulling on a HFX Wanderers FC shirt this season.

Not the rock star, however. The Canadian Premier League team has signed a 31-year-old Trinidad and Tobago international with the same name as Captain Fantastic.

John joins fellow Trinidad players Jan-Michael Williams, Akeem Garcia and Andre Rampersad in coming to Halifax, thanks to coach Stephen Hart’s connections to the Caribbean islands.

Hart, a former Canadian national team coach who was born in Trinidad, coached the Trinidad and Tobago national team from 2013 to 2016.

All four players won national championships with club teams in Trinidad and Tobago and three of them have represented their country.

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“I’m delighted because we have a group of players who are familiar with each other and basically they play down the middle of the park, so I think that’s very important,” Hart said in a statement.

“They’ve played with and against each other. I see them competing for some of those key spots and I hope they help the team jell very quickly,” Hart added.

John has played in Trinidad and Belgium and represented Trinidad at both youth and senior levels.

The 34-year-old Williams, a goalkeeper, has played in Trinidad, Belgium, Hungary, Honduras and most recently Guatemala. He has won 81 caps for his country and earned player of the year and goalkeeper of the year honours.

Garcia and Rampersad both played for Wanderers assistant coach Derek King on his FC Santa Rosa team that won the Trinidad championship.

Garcia, 22, can play as an attacking wide player or striker. He has played for Trinidad’s under-17, under-20 and senior teams. Rampersad, 23, spent the last eight years with FC Santa Rosa.

The four new international players join a Wanderers roster that includes Zachary Sukunda and university prospects Peter Schaale, Andre Bona and Christian Oxner.

In other CPL news, Hamilton’s Forge FC signed Canadian youth international midfielder Tristan Borges.

Borges, 20, most recently played for the under-21 side at Dutch club SC Heerenveen. The Toronto native has represented Canada at the under-17 and under-20 levels.

Bobby Smyrniotis, Forge FC’s technical director and head coach, called Borges a “dynamic midfielder who brings an exciting dimension to our attack through his creativity, versatility and ability to attack the goal.”

The seven-team CPL kicks off its inaugural season in April.

The Canadian Press