Former Pele Captain succumbs to Covid-19

Mar 29, 2020 Sports

Georgetown Football Association (GFA) club, Pele FC, are in mourning following the untimely death of one of their founding members and former Captain, Wendell Manifold, who was a fatality of the deadly coronavirus in the United States recently.

Wendell Manifold (seated centre with ball at feet) was a founding member and former Captain of the Pele Football Club.

Former youth national and coach, Lennox Arthur, who was majorly responsible for Manifold’s involvement with Pele FC, recounted that Manifold was always a leader on the pitch, “Wendell was a great center defender; he was very good in the air and was a strong tackler. He was a leader, an excellent one too.”
Arthur, who represented Guyana at the youth level in 1967-69, explained that during those years he was already into coaching and he plied that trade at the YMCA Albouystown club. It was during a game in 1969 where Arthur first discovered not only that Manifold was a talented player but that he was even involved in the sport. Arthur recounted that Wendell’s mom, Elaine, was very good friends with his and he had known the young Manifold through their mothers’ relationship but didn’t know the youngster was involved in football until a meeting between YMCA Albouystown and Manifold’s Dorcas Football Club that the secret was revealed.
During the interview with Kaieteur Sport, Arthur posited that Dorcas made light work of his club YMCA and Manifold, although he was a center back, scored all the goals in the match, exhibiting his prowess from set-pieces.
Following the game, the then young Arthur went straight to Elaine Manifold and implored her to have her son Wendell join YMCA. The next day, Arthur chuckled, “Wendell was the first player present for practice.” Wendell Manifold would’ve been a gem of a player for Guyana, having captained the Golden Arrowhead at the under-17 and under-19 levels before leaving for Clemson University in New York, United States. By that time, Lennox Arthur and his younger sibling Ashton Manifold, Patrick Barton, Keith Layne, Monty Wilson, Ivor Carrington, Lloyd Enmore and Clyde ‘Farmer’ Brown had already formed the Pele FC club in 1971; the year that Brazilian legend ‘King Pele’ announced his professional retirement from the sport.