The Story of the Only Wrexham Player to Ever Play in a World Cup

There might not seem to be many similarities between North Wales and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. After all, they sit 7,000-km apart.

Yet the closer you look, the more they have in common. They each boast a unique cultural identity, are places of outstanding natural beauty, embody an underdog spirit and have both sent shockwaves through global soccer. Oh, and in both places, Dennis Lawrence is a legend.

"Big Den" was a key part of Wrexham's success in the early 2000s and was even offered the managerial role at the Racecourse Ground in 2019. He turned it down because he still had unfinished business as manager of the Trinidad and Tobago national team.

Lawrence reiterates that while Trinidad is his home, Wrexham remains his heart. The Welsh club gave him his first opportunity in European soccer in 2001, and he repaid them with five years of incredible service. He also became the only active Wrexham player ever to appear in a World Cup. Dom Hyam and Liberato Cacace will join him in that exclusive club this summer.

"You look back now, and you wouldn't have foreseen 20 years later that we'd still be having this conversation, but it has flown by very quickly," Lawrence tells Sports Illustrated.

Soca Warriors Make History

After narrowly missing qualification for the 1974 and 1990 tournaments, Trinidad and Tobago finished sixth in Concacaf qualifying for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea and continued to make steady progress following the appointment of former Real Madrid manager Leo Beenhakker. Four years later, it finished fourth in Concacaf qualifying behind the USMNT, Mexico, and Costa Rica.

That was enough to earn it a place in an intercontinental playoff against Bahrain, which had finished fifth in AFC qualifying. The winner would be decided over two legs, with the victor earning a place at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Trinidad and Tobago dug deep but was held to a 1–1 draw at home in the first leg and knew a monumental performance would be required in Manama to keep its dream alive. The bad news for Lawrence was that he felt tightness in his hamstring during the closing moments of the first leg, and the medical staff were reluctant to let him play in the decisive fixture. Even if he wasn't fully fit, he knew he couldn't miss out.

"Coming to the end of the game, probably about 15 minutes to go, I started to feel my hamstring tightening up," Lawrence recalls. "An assessment took place at the end of the game, and the manager had a decision to make. He only wanted to take fit and ready players for the second leg.

"The medical team advised that I wouldn't be able to take much part if I was selected. I had to convince him otherwise, that I would be fine. Leo initially told me, as we were outside the team hotel, that he was not going to take me to Bahrain for the second leg. I had to convince him otherwise. We had a very honest conversation. Fair play to him-he took my word over the medical team. Everything became history after that."

History indeed. With tensions high in a tight second leg, chances were at a premium. Early in the second half, Trinidad and Tobago won a corner. Captain and talisman, former Manchester United star Dwight Yorke, stepped up to take it, with Marvin Andrews the intended target. Lawrence, who stands 2.01 meters tall, was sent forward as a decoy. It didn't quite go to plan.

The ball sailed over the head of the aerial specialist Andrews and into the space Lawrence occupied. With a split second to react, the Wrexham defender attacked the cross and sent a bullet header bouncing over the line. Euphoria.

"I remember it as if it were yesterday," he laughs. "I've always tried to be a bit of a distraction. Once the ball came off Dwight's foot and I looked at the flight of the ball, I realized it was mine. I thought, ‘Well, all right, I'm going to go and attack this.'

"So the intention is always to go up and try to get your head on it and see if you can score because, as a center back, you don't get many chances. Set pieces are always the best opportunity.

"I've seen it a couple of times, but I've not watched back any of the games I've been involved in. I think in modern times, it's a bit of an uncomfortable feeling sitting and watching yourself."

Lawrence's goal earned a 1–0 win in Bahrain and a 2–1 victory on aggregate. It meant Trinidad and Tobago became the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for a FIFA World Cup-a record that stood until Iceland qualified for the first time in 2018.

It was party time, but not for the match-winner.

"Once it was achieved, I couldn't really celebrate because I was taken off the pitch for a drug test. So I didn't really get to celebrate with the team!

"I met the team back on the bus before we headed to the airport. Just before we left the hotel, the team administrator received a phone call from the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He wanted the whole team to report back for a massive celebration. I remember picking up the phone and calling Dennis Smith, and before I could finish my sentence, he just said to me, ‘Look, you've got to go.'

"That was really, really kind of him, allowing me to go and enjoy what was probably the most memorable part of the whole qualification because it was, for a long while-a very, very long while-the first time I'd seen Trinidad united as one country.

"There were massive celebrations across the city, in every village, everywhere you went. It was an incredible day when we got back. Apart from the soccer, that is probably the best part of the whole thing-being able to see the country unite and enjoy such a prestigious occasion for something we'd never done before and still haven't done again."

They might have been the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for a World Cup, but Trinidad and Tobago also had Wrexham behind them. They have club legend Joey Jones to thank for that.

How He Signed For Wrexham

Lawrence was playing for local side Defence Force when teammate Clayton Ince was offered a trial by Wrexham. There was just one problem: he needed a work permit, and Wrexham "didn't have a clue" where to start. Help came in the form of Jones, whose cousin Mike Berry was a soccer agent.

Berry helped sort out the legal issues involved with bringing a Trinidadian player over on trial and then asked whether he knew any others who might fancy a move to the United Kingdom. Lawrence followed, along with fellow future Wrexham players Carlos Edwards, Hector Sam and Silvio Spann. Edwards, then playing for Luton Town, was also named in the World Cup squad, but Sam and Spann both missed out because of injury.

The Soca Warriors were drawn in Group B alongside England, Sweden and Paraguay. A clash against England's "Golden Generation" only gave Wrexham fans another reason to support their history-maker at the tournament. Suddenly, supporters began showing up at matches in Trinidad and Tobago jerseys, flags appeared in the stands, and some fans were even asking Lawrence for tickets to watch their adopted nation make history that summer.

"It was a unique situation. Wales didn't qualify for that World Cup, and you had myself, Carlos, Hector-we had a connection with people there and had made a lot of friends. To watch the Wrexham fans embrace Trinidad and Tobago, embrace our culture, and choose to support us was amazing.

"I think the fact that we had England in our group made it even easier for Welsh fans to get behind Trinidad and Tobago. I arranged as many tickets as I could for fans to come over and watch the game, so it was an incredible feeling. It wasn't just Trinidad and Tobago support we had-the majority were Wrexham supporters."

The North Wales club was inundated with media requests ahead of the tournament as World Cup fever swept across the region. Lawrence was humbled by the support and likes to think he and his teammates repaid it in the best possible way.

In one of its World Cup warm-up matches, Trinidad and Tobago faced Wales in Austria. Not only did the Welsh win, but a young Gareth Bale made his debut and set up Robert Earnshaw for the winner. Bale would later lead Wales to the 2022 World Cup and score the nation's first goal at the tournament since 1958 when he converted a penalty against the USMNT.

"So we did play our part in helping Wales climb the ladder to where they are today!" Lawrence joked.

Playing at the 2006 World Cup

Trinidad and Tobago entered the tournament as rank outsiders, with many expecting it to be brushed aside by far more experienced teams. It had already exceeded expectations by qualifying, but that didn't mean it was there simply to enjoy the occasion.

"For me personally, the biggest thing was not letting our country down. We'd been labeled the ‘whipping boys.' We were a banana republic. The most important thing was making sure the rest of the world recognized that Trinidad and Tobago was a force to be reckoned with in every aspect of the game.

"We wanted to represent our country the right way, make sure we were competitive, and give our best. Then, from there, see what results came. But the biggest thing was making sure we represented our country and our flag."

It didn't take long for the team to do exactly that. At the press conference before its opening match against Sweden, an English journalist disrespectfully asked whether, given cricket's popularity in the country, Trinidad and Tobago expected to lose by a cricket score as well. The team talk practically wrote itself.

In their opening match, the Soca Warriors held Sweden to a scoreless draw despite having Avery John sent off less than 30 seconds into the second half.

"It felt like we won the World Cup after we drew that game because we were down to 10 men, and Sweden had an incredible squad at that point-Zlatan Ibrahimović, Henrik Larsson-they had some incredible players. To come away with a draw under those circumstances felt like winning the World Cup. It motivated us heading into the next game against England. To accomplish that against a nation as powerful as Sweden was massive."

In its second game, Trinidad and Tobago again showed tremendous spirit against a star-studded England side before late goals from Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard dealt it a cruel blow. Two decades later, former Liverpool striker Crouch remains an unpopular figure in the nation after pulling Brent Sancho's hair while winning the header that led to his controversial opening goal. In today's game, such an offense would likely result in a red card.

"I've never doubted the effort and energy that we put in," Lawrence said of that match. "We could have done with VAR back then because the first goal would have been disallowed. I've always felt proud of what we accomplished, how we went about it, and what we did. Even though we were really disappointed by the result, we felt we were inches and minutes away from pulling off what would have been an incredible upset.

"We were proud that we were disappointed by the result, and I think that says it all. The fact that we played against a really good England team and came away feeling disappointed that we didn't get the result we wanted-that says everything."

In its final group game, Trinidad and Tobago fell to a disappointing 2–0 defeat against Paraguay as its World Cup journey came to an end. Before it had even sunk in, Lawrence was on vacation in Florida, reflecting on a whirlwind experience.

"It was a strange one, to be quite honest. Marvin and I went to Miami just to chill out. I remember sitting in our hotel room while the World Cup was still going on, watching it and thinking, ‘Hang on, we were just there two days ago.'

"It was a really strange feeling because you didn't quite know what to make of it-that the tournament you had just been a big part of was now something you were watching from a hotel room in Miami. So yeah, it was strange. It was weird."

Group B Final Standings

World Cup Was Wrexham Farewell

Lawrence returned from the World Cup a Wrexham hero, but it wasn't long before he left the club. Kevin Reeves had helped bring the defender to North Wales as part of Brian Flynn's coaching staff and now wanted him to join him at Swansea City instead. Wrexham did everything it could to keep him, and it says a great deal about his service to the club that he remained a legend even after handing in a transfer request.

"It's a special club. It was the first club to allow me to ply my trade in the United Kingdom. The owners at the time, the people around the club-it was a really genuine group of people. I've always held Wrexham in special regard, and it's great to see the trajectory the club is on now. Long may it continue."

Twenty years on, Trinidad and Tobago has never returned to a World Cup. Now managed by former teammate Yorke, it recently finished behind Curaçao and Jamaica in qualifying. Curaçao will become the new smallest nation by population ever to play at a FIFA World Cup this summer.

For Lawrence, that is both a source of pride and disappointment. He remains one of only 23 players to have represented his country at a World Cup and one of only nine who appeared in all three group matches.

"It's disappointing that we haven't been able to do it again because I think, at the time, we all felt that once we had broken through, we would put structures in place and build a foundation that would allow us to qualify again. I'm not saying we would have done it every World Cup, but I thought we'd have managed it again by now, and it just hasn't happened."

That means this summer he will be cheering on another nation instead. Thankfully, that shouldn't be too difficult.

"I always follow Brazil. I think the first World Cup I ever saw was the 1982 World Cup. I remember watching Brazil and thinking, ‘This is what I like.' Ever since then, I've followed Brazilian soccer."

For a generation of Wrexham fans, they will always follow Trinidad and Tobago for exactly the same reason.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Story of the Only Wrexham Player to Ever Play in a World Cup.

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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 10:00 AM.