FRANCE 98 – General Media News Template
South Africa, Japan and Croatia may also be making their World Cup debuts but there is no doubt that Jamaica are the most unlikely qualifiers for France 98. There are fewer than 10,000 footballers in Jamaica and they play for teams with names that either sound like retirement retreats: Harbour View, Constant Spring and Olympic Gardens or merely exotic: Violet Kickers and Galaxi. Football has been played with a reggae beat for decades but it is only in the past four years that the Jamaican national team has been taken seriously.
Many of the players are more used to playing in front of crowds that number in the hundreds rather than the tens of thousands who will confront them once the tournament kicks-off. As recently as 1986, the Jamaicans didn’t enter the World Cup because they couldn’t afford to. The visionary Horace Burrell was appointed president of the Jamaican Football Association in 1994 and a few months later he appointed Brazilian coach Rene Simoes. A revolution was under way. Jamaica, who were a lowly 96th in the FIFA rankings back then, edged out vastly more experienced campaigners including Costa Rica, Canada, Honduras and El Salvador, to earn their place among the 32 finalists in France.
From trailing a poor third behind cricket and basketball in the affection of Jamaican sports fans, the Reggae Boyz became hot news with their own Internet web site and official song. The team are even being used to help promote tourism to the Caribbean. Although their results in recent warm-up matches have been disappointing, the Reggae Boyz point to a 0-0 draw with World Cup holders Brazil in the CONCACAF Gold Cup as evidence of their potential.
The Jamaicans are in Group H of the World Cup and open their campaign against fellow debutants Croatia in Lens on June 14. They will also face Japan and former champions Argentina and are 1,000 to one outsiders to win football’s biggest prize.
Even though the first squad from the English-speaking Caribbean to qualify for the World Cup finals includes seven English-based professionals, they are taking a low-key approach to the World Cup finals. “The Jamaican players have come to participate in a competition, but also to take part in a celebration,” said Chelsea fullback Frank Sinclair, one of the “foreign mercenaries” signed up by coach Simoes.
The Jamaican squad surprisingly includes controversial striker Walter Boyd, who was dropped from the team in February for failing to attend an official function. Boyd begged Simoes for a second chance and was recalled just a few days before the team departed for France. Boyd’s many fans had caused an uproar days earlier when they blocked a main road for 20 minutes in a protest against his proposed exclusion for the squad. Boyd, known as the Black Pearl, is not the only character on a team that clearly knows how to enjoy itself. Captain and goalkeeper Warren “Boopie” Barrett, who plays for the evocatively-named Violet Kickers, hopes the tournament may be the key to fame and fortune. “It would be a dream come true to get the chance to play professionally in somewhere like England,” said Barrett. “But first of all we are here, playing for our whole nation. We have brought the country together, giving hope to all those kids who live in slum areas and dream that football can give them a better life.”
One of Barrett’s understudies on the national squad is Aaron “Wild Boy” Lawrence, so-called because of his acrobatic saves rather than his love of nightlife. Other squad members, like Derby County’s Deon Burton and Wimbldon pair Marcus Gayle and Robbie Earle, are rather more used to the spotlight, but could end up being upstaged by home-based heroes like aggressive fullback Ricardo Gardener and talented midfielder Theodore Whitmore.
The team retain a sense of confidence ahead of their moment of truth, but Simoes, a Christian who has ‘Jesus Saves’ printed on the back of his shirt, is realistic about their chances. “We certainly aren’t here just to promote tourism,” he said. “We know we have no chance of beating the world, but that isn’t the point.”
Simoes, who has coached in Qatar and Portugal as well as being charge of the Brazilian youth squad and is known to his charges as ‘The Professor’, points to how dramatically his team have improved in a relatively short space of time. “When I first started, many of the players did not have any real comprehension about teamwork or tactics,” he said. “But they have learned and they have learned well.”