King replaces Yorke as interim coach

Derek King has been appointed interim coach following yesterday’s development, which saw the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) and national senior team men’s coach, Dwight Yorke, part ways in a mutual agreement.

The development comes months after suspicion arose that Yorke’s position hung in the balance after an unsuccessful World Cup campaign that many felt should have been a certain qualification for the twin-island republic.

Following the announcement of Yorke’s tenure being ended, TTFA president Kieron Edwards, who just over a month ago confirmed that Yorke would be retained, noted that King, who was the interim coach following the sacking of Angus Eve in July 2024 and became one of Yorke’s assistants, was the obvious replacement for Yorke.

“When it relates to the upcoming coach at home, coach King right now would operate as the interim coach, as he was coach Yorke’s assistant locally here. And we would have always had succession planning in terms of the next step for the FA. That’s something we constantly do. And not just at the senior level, even at the youth level. So, we know one day there will be a life after coach Yorke with the men’s senior national team, and things are in place for that,” Edwards explained.

Yorke was scheduled to be at the helm when the national team faces Bolivia in a friendly match on March 15 at the Ramon Tahuichi Aguilera Stadium in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. That match was expected to be used as preparation for the team’s participation in the FIFA Series, where they are scheduled to face Venezuela on March 27 and Gabon on March 30 in Uzbekistan, essentially kick-starting the new phase of the national team programme.

This will now be King’s first assignment as interim coach.

Edwards confirmed that the Bolivia game will go on as planned under King as coach until the FA finds a new man for the job.

“I can report for sure that the Bolivia trip is well on its way. As I said, only on the 28th of February would we have made the decision to part ways with Yorke. The only reason why this decision was not published before today is that persons would have leaked it for different reasons. And coach Yorke would have sent to his personal assistant the release thereafter. And then the FA would have sent out their release as well.”

A former national youth and senior team defender whose career ended at age 24 due to injury, King tasted early success in his managerial career when he won the TT Pro League with Joe Public in 2009/10.

Soon after, he served as assistant coach to Stephen Hart (2013-2016), under whom T&T reached consecutive Gold Cup quarter-finals in 2013 and 2015, while also attaining a FIFA ranking of 49. Following Hart’s departure from the T&T senior team after being fired by now deceased former TTFA president David John Williams, King guided North East Stars to the TT Pro League in 2016-2017 and at the time became one of only two coaches to win the domestic competition with two teams.

Next, King took over the reins at T&T Super League club FC Santa Rosa and led The Canons to that competition’s title in 2017-18. King later followed Hart to Canadian Premier League club Halifax Wanderers, serving as assistant coach for three years.

A past player for Arima North Secondary School, formerly Arima Senior Comprehensive School, King takes charge of the T&T team with immediate effect.

He could not be reached for comments yesterday.

At the national team level, the Arima native oversaw T&T’s senior team preparations as interim coach for the CONCACAF Nations League matches against Honduras and French Guiana in September 2024, before Yorke was hired on November 1 of that year to guide T&T back to the World Cup.

Despite it being widely felt that this was T&T’s best chance of qualifying for the FIFA showpiece, owing to this year’s expanded 48-team tournament being hosted in the United States of America, Mexico and Canada, who were not required to compete in the qualification campaign, coupled with T&T being placed in a group also contested by Bermuda, Curacao, and Jamaica, Yorke’s team finished in the third position behind group winners Curacao and Jamaica.

Yorke repeatedly bemoaned his luck throughout the campaign, often telling the media that “the football gods” were not too good to him and his team.