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Liam Gordon plans to rack up more air miles in the future to represent Guyana.
The Wanderers defender has seven caps for his country, located in the north-east corner of South America but classified as a Caribbean nation.
It is 4,468 miles between Bolton and the Guyanese capital Georgetown and Gordon admits the significant travel has been a factor in making himself available.
“I’ve got to be wary of it, 100 per cent, because for the boys that play for Wales and stuff, it’s a straight plane or whatever, but for people like myself, it’s two planes,” he said.
“I’ve got to get two planes to get over there, there’s no straight flight from England to Guyana.”
“Let’s say I go from Manchester, I’d have to go to America and then a plane from America over to Guyana so really it’s two days out of my schedule, out of me playing here and training here, so it’s something I have to seriously think about.
“It is always an honour to play for my country, though, so any opportunity, I would want to play for them. I think it’s always a massive confidence boost for me that my country wants me to represent them in any competition.”
The national team is currently coached by Brazilian Marco Maximo, who can count a short spell at Scottish club Livingston on a varied CV.
Gordon is not the only familiar face in the squad with Reiss Greenidge – currently on loan with Barnet – and ex-Bolton players Stephen Duke-McKenna and Neil Danns still actively involved.
“I’ve had contact with them but they went through a transition of managers so the manager got sacked I think in September,” Gordon said.
“I spoke to the new manager for Guyana but we haven’t got any competitions this year. It would have been the World Cup qualifiers but we didn’t make it that far so I think we’ve got a couple of friendlies next year.
“It is a bit of a mix, overseas players and the local based players, so whatever the gaffer picks, that’s the team he’ll put together.”
Gordon has already been involved in the country’s biggest football achievement, qualification for the 2019 Gold Cup, which included group games against the US, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago.
“That was their first time getting to the Gold Cup,” Gordon remembered.
“It was a big thing. I think we had the toughest group in there and I think our first game was against America and that was a real experience. It doesn’t happen a lot and it certainly hasn’t happened for Guyana and that was their first time, so it was a massive achievement for the country and for us personally.”
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