Transforming adversity into a path of success, with courage and grit—defines the exceptional qualities of this young female football enthusiast.
And taking her game from the playing field to the corridors of administration in local football circles has been a ‘dream- come-true’ for this former national football player.
Chermalyn Albert, 27, a Choiseul native can best be described as ‘a sports oriented individual that is very passionate about football’.
Albert’s initial playing skills began with the then Nemesis Football Club, which was later transformed to the Marchand Female Football Team. She later moved to the Dennery district team in 2013 for a short period; before eventually settling for a stint with the Soufriere football team.
Chermalyn worked hard on her game in her quest to gain national selection and was successful at that, before an unfortunate injury ruled her out of the game.
In 2010, she got her first taste of national duty with her debut at the Under – 20 CFU championships, in Cuba; and then went on to represent St Lucia at the senior level, at the Windward Islands Championship and the Olympic Qualifiers.
Sometime later, in 2017, a nagging injury would cause Chermalyn to retire from the sport that she loved playing.
Nonetheless, Chermalyn would not allow retirement from the sport to dampen her spirits, but rather diverted her interests “to channel her football energy into a new direction – administration.”
With valuable experience and knowledge of the game at her disposal, Chermalyn decided to take on the challenge of revamping the Choiseul Football League. She began the mobilization work in her district community of Choiseul, in an effort to ensure that the Choiseul Football League met the requirement of the St. Lucia Football Association [SLFA].
As fortune would have it, in 2018, Albert was elected president of the Choiseul Football League.
Heading an enthusiastic executive team, including other members, such as; Vice-President Kasha Mitchel, Secretary-Jeanine Eugene, PRO-Jorden Mitchel, and Treasurer-Trevor Ephiphane they worked assiduously to transform the CFL from a dormant body to a most vibrant organisation.
Since then, Albert’s main focus has been directed towards improvement of the Club Structure and Football Development. Presently, the CFL consists of five fully registered and licensed clubs; namely Ebony FC, Black Eagles FC, Streetballers FC, Pein 53 FC and Somos Jouvenes FC.
Albert is the founder of the Black Eagles Football Club.