Carribean Midfielder returns after Russian adventure

Wesley Charles (30) is in his seventh season with Bray Wanderers having just returned from from Rostov. Charles has covered many miles since he first left his homeland island of St Vincent in the Carribean at the tender age of 18 in pursuit of his sporting ambitions.


Refusal of a work permit at Bury in England saw him move north west and across the water to Sligo Rovers. Subsequently he moved to Bray and has been with the seaguls since. His form at club and international level saw him obtain teh unusual opportunity of football in southern Russian city of Rostov.

"It was really good because I was introduced to full-time training and the standard of the league is really high. Some class players like Maniche (now at Chelsea) and some talented Brazilians. There were a lot of foreign players in the league together with some quality Russians".

However he does not that one of the major downsides to the Russian game is racism. "One time we went to play Spartak Moscow, their fans were bad. There were three black lads on our team and the crowd were giving monkey chants and stuff like that. It didn't happen everywhere we went, it was only Moscow. The funny thing about it is that the Moscow teams have black players too, it just didn't make sense".

Now he is back in Bray and says it wasn't a big decision to come back especially as many of the locals sent him cards when he was in Rostov, he feels at home by the sea. Bray have brought through many great players and its current cosmopolitan mix combined with the recognition its veteran manager Pat Devlin achieved this week in his appointment as manager of the Ireland B internationals marks them out as a team to watch in 2006.

Source of story- Eoin Dunne, Soccer correspondent of the Irish Independent