Hoyte: World Cup "No"
JUSTIN Hoyte plans to snub the chance of playing for Trinidad and Tobago in order to pursue his boyhood dream of one day playing for England.
The Arsenal star, currently on loan at Sunderland for the rest of this season, has represented England at junior levels all the way up to the Under-21s.
But he is also eligible for Trinidad and Tobago through his father and has been targeted as a possible recruit to the Carribbean side by the national team coach Leo Beenhakker.
That would open up the prospect of Hoyte actually playing AGAINST England, because the two countries are in the same qualifying group in this summer's World Cup finals.
The Dutch coach has already snapped up the international registration of Fulham goalkeeper Tony Warner and is currently looking at the situation with Hoyte, Aston Villa's JLloyd Samuel and West Ham United's Bobby Zamora.
The Sunderland full back though plans to turn his back on the prospect of playing for the sunshine state and miss out on playing in the World Cup this year for his chance to play for England in the future.
He said: "I've read about Trinidad and Tobago looking into the possibility of calling up several players in the Premiership, including myself.
"It's flattering of course and the chance of playing in a World Cup would be great.
"But for the moment I plan to concentrate purely on my England career and I'm hoping that one day I'll be playing for England in a World Cup.
"I've played for England at Under 17, 18 and Under 21 levels and I've still got ambitions to play in the senior squad.
"That has been my dream since I was a youngster and I'm not giving up on that.
"I'm still young, just 22 and one day I'm hoping to be good enough to play for England and pull on the three lions shirt at the ultimate level."
Hoyte will keep his options open for the moment and Beenhakker will investigate whether FIFA will relax rules which prevent players who have played for one country's Under 21s to switch allegiance to another.
But for the moment he has every intention of resisting the lure of playing in the World Cup finals at such a tender age.
He said: "It is great that I'm being looked at but I won't be making myself eligible for Trinidad and Tobago when I'm still hopeful of continuing my progress with England."
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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