![]() Cardines in 2025 | |||
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Rio Solomon Cardines [1] | ||
Date of birth | 1 July 2006 | ||
Place of birth | Stevenage, England [2] | ||
Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) [3] | ||
Position(s) | Right-back | ||
Team information | |||
Current team | Crystal Palace | ||
Number | 59 | ||
Youth career | |||
2016–2022 | Stevenage | ||
2022– | Crystal Palace | ||
International career‡ | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
2023 | Trinidad and Tobago U17 | 3 | (1) |
2024 | Trinidad and Tobago U20 | 3 | (1) |
2025– | Trinidad and Tobago | 2 | (0) |
‡ National team caps and goals as of 14:37, 29 May 2025 (UTC) |
Rio Solomon Cardines (born 1 July 2006) is a professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Premier League club Crystal Palace. Born in England, he plays for the Trinidad and Tobago national team.
Cardines is a quick athletic defender who was a youth product of the successful London Colney Colts under-12 and under-15 teams based in St Albans. He went on to join the academy at Stevenage. Cardines joined the youth academy of Crystal Palace at under-16 level in 2022. He was part of the team who won a pre-season tournament against Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Dundee United in August 2022. Though he has played predominantly as a right-back, Cardines has also slotted in anywhere across the defence if required and has also played on the wing. Cardines made his first start for the Under-18s side against Norwich City in November 2022 and managed to get on the scoresheet in a 2-2 draw. His performances for the young Eagles saw him earn a call-up in January 2023, to Trinidad and Tobago's Under-17s team for their participation in the CONCACAF Under-17 Championship. [4] He helped the Crystal Palace U21s win the 2023–24 Premier League International Cup. [5] On 3 July 2024, he signed his first professional contract with Crystal Palace. [6] He played for the Palace U21s in a 1–0 EFL Trophy loss to Stevenage on 20 August 2024. [7] Cardines first competitive involvement with the first-team was as an unused substitute in the 2025 FA Community Shield in August 2025. [8]
Born in England, Cardines is of Trinidadian descent through his paternal grandparents. [2] A dual-citizen, he gained Trinidadian citizenship on 10 February 2023. [9] He was part of the Trinidad and Tobago U17s that played at the 2023 CONCACAF U-17 Championship. [10] In 2024, he was called up to the Trinidad and Tobago U20s for a set of 2024 CONCACAF U-20 Championship qualifying matches. [9]
On 1 July 2023, Cardines was part of the preliminary 60-man squad for the senior Trinidad and Tobago national team for the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup. [11] He was formally called up to the senior Trinidad and Tobago national team for the 2025 Unity Cup. [12] He debuted in that tournament in a 3–2 loss to Jamaica on 27 May 2025. [13]