Leading a North Village team to the under-13 final of the Holland Cup has put Kenny Thompson on Bermuda Football Association's wanted list.

Thompson, a Bermuda international not long ago, has proven himself as a coach of some pedigree... and the BFA are taking note.

"We are in some talks right now about me getting involved,'' said Thompson, who confirmed that an approach had come from technical director Clyde Best since his return from the recent tournament in Holland.

"I'm quite interested in being a part of the national set-up. There are some things that need to be talked about first.

"Both myself and representatives of the association have to talk about responsibilities on our part and whether we can agree and come to some common ground on those responsibilities.'' The North Village team's success was made all the more significant by the fact that national youth teams have met with disappointing results in competition here and in the Caribbean recently.

"What people have to realise is that us making the final in 1998 is as a result of work that began in September, 1996, with the Somerset Eagles Mini-Minor team, from which the bulk of the players in the 1997 (Holland Cup) tournament came,'' said Thompson.

"We added some players to take to the Holland Cup in 1997 and we reached the quarter-finals. We got the bulk of the players that went last year together again and added some new players and this was the result.'' Thompson says reaching the final of the Holland Cup met his expectations of the team, but pressure wasn't put on them to go that far beforehand.

"(From) what I saw last year, I thought we had a chance of reaching the final,'' said the coach, who set a goal of improving on that success.

"I never wanted to put any pressure on the players, especially at this age.

They all understand that winning is the main aim of the game, but winning at this age must be put into perspective; not winning before technical or tactical development.'' Thompson says the local youngsters were not outclassed in the tournament and even held their own against bigger players.

"All of the teams were very difficult to play against,'' said Thompson. "If they were not technically sound they were very big, so in every match we had to play at a high level in order to gain a good result.

"We definitely played well enough to win. I'm disappointed at coming so close, especially in the penalty shoot-out when on two occasions we were one kick away from winning.'' Next year Thompson is hoping to take two squads to the tournament to play in the under-13s and under-14s.

The former Bermuda midfielder, who is a great admirer of the Dutch game, thinks it may be wiser to send youth teams to Europe to compete in tournaments. That is one of the views he will share with the BFA.

"We go to Holland and it is very important we expose our players to the European set-up,'' said Thompson.

"They have better facilities there and generally a higher level of football, so we can learn more compared to playing in the Caribbean. In my opinion, the Caribbean countries' facilities are worse than ours. Is it really worth it when we can go to a top tournament in Holland, France, Belgium, Spain, England or Italy?'' DUTCH DELIGHT -- The North Village under-13 team which reached their age group final, under the coaching of Kenny Thompson, at the recent Holland Cup in Amsterdam.