Winston Chung receives highest FIFA Honour - Order of Merit

Photo courtesy CONCACAF.com.
CONCACAF.com
Confederation of North, Central American & Caribbean Association Football
May 25, 2012

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Winston Chung received the FIFA Order of Merit on Thursday at the opening ceremony of the 62nd FIFA Congress at the Budapest Congress and World Trade Centre.The Jamaican-born Chung, whose gifts to football were felt far beyond his native country, was presented the award by CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb.

The Order of Merit is FIFA's highest honor and is given to those who have made profound contributions to the sport.

Though Chung was well-known for his ability to instruct and motivate footballers, he also possessed a unique gift that enabled him to identify problems in the community, create programs that garnered wide-spread support and implement meaningful solutions.

To that end, in 1964, Chung founded the Santos Football Club in Jamaica.There, he gave opportunities to underprivileged inner-city players, who generally would not have gained exposure to organized club football on the island.Chung went on to win titles at four different levels of Jamaican league football, coaching the club to a place in the 1970 CONCACAF Champions Cup.

After leaving Santos, Chung moved on to Clarendon College, where he formed one of Jamaica's greatest-ever schoolboy teams.

As his reputation grew in Jamaica, Chung's talents were being tapped throughout the CONCACAF region. In the United States, he worked with the American Youth Soccer Organization, where he was responsible for licensing coaches, organizing clinics, seminars and workshops.

In 1989, Chung became Technical Director for the Cayman Islands Football Association, training all of the islands' national teams.

He returned home in 1991 and was the Jamaican Football Federation's technical director for two years.In his first year back, Jamaica's national team won the Caribbean Cup.

Chung returned to the Cayman Islands in 1996 as technical director of Scholars Sports Club.Two years later, he went to the Academy Sports Club, where his youth sides won numerous national titles.

Since the FIFA Order of Merit was first awarded in 18984, Chung is the 16th person from CONCACAF to be a recipient.