The Guyana Football Federation (GFF), the local governing body of association football, and Marcio Maximo, have reached a mutual agreement to terminate the latter’s contract as the head of the Golden Jaguars Senior program.
This was disclosed by an official release from the federation. According to the correspondence, the GFF executive committee and Brazilian native, reached an agreement to end his contract, and as such, it will not be renewed when it ends on August 31.
The release further stated that the mutual decision was finalised following the coach’s disastrous campaigns in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers and 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup Playoffs. The Golden Jaguars were dumped out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, after concluding the group campaign with a record of three losses and a win.
Guyana lost to Trinidad and Tobago (4-0), St Kitts and Nevis (3-0), and Puerto Rico (2-0), with their only victory occurring against The Bahamas (4-0). In the regional tournament, Guyana suffered an embarrassing defeat to Guatemala (4-0) in the first round.
Maximo who was appointed to the helm of the program in 2019 ahead of the League-B campaign in the CONCACAF Nations League, ended his tenure with a record of four wins, six losses and a draw, of which four losses have occurred in their last five fixtures.
“We are grateful for the hard work, experience, energy and commitment that Coach Maximo brought to the programme over the last two years, especially his commendable efforts in developing Guyana-based players and introducing promising young talent such as Omari Glasgow and Nicholai Andrews early to the professional culture of international football,” GFF President Wayne Forde was quoted as saying.
He added, “We cannot escape the fact that results did not materialise as we would have wanted this year, but there have been many positives during his time in charge – including a memorable draw away to Jamaica and some big wins during the Concacaf Nations League. Coach Maximo’s relentless focus on renewing the squad and building a professional national team structure in Guyana has laid solid foundations for the future growth of programme. On behalf of Guyana and our football fraternity, we thank him for his service and wish him all the very best for what comes next.”
The release further stated that the GFF is expected to announce the new coach of the senior men’s program in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Maximo said, “I am very grateful and proud to work here… I am very happy with what we did – of course, always you want more. I’ve enjoyed it, but I’m professional – the cycle is finished and you should move on. My cycle as Head Coach of the Golden Jaguars is finished, but the cycle continues. We did the foundation here, now they should work on this continuously because the Golden Jaguars have a brilliant future. There is no other way for Guyana. You should renew the team and you should continue in this way.”
He further said, “We jumped nine places in the FIFA ranking since we arrived, we renewed the team – if you continue like that you will jump more and soon Guyana, in one or two years, can play equal conditions with the best teams in the Caribbean, with a younger team, and can produce a lot of players to export and import players at a good level.”
