Young Reggae Boyz gear up with overseas help
Foreign-based players set to try out for under-20 squad ahead of qualifiers
Published:Thursday | April 21, 2022 | 12:12 AMRobert Bailey/Gleaner Writer
SEVEN OVERSEAS-BASED players are scheduled to arrive in the island next week to take part in a trial for the National Under-20 team ahead of their participation in Concacaf World Cup qualifiers in June.
Jamaica will play in Group H alongside hosts Antigua and Barbuda and Costa Rica in the Concacaf Men’s Under-20 Championship. The championship, which acts as a qualifier for the FIFA under-20 World Cup, will be held in Honduras from June 18 to July 3.
The top three teams in each of the four groups will advance to the round of 16, where they will be joined by the four teams that progressed from the 2021 Concacaf Under-20 Championship qualifiers.
According to head coach Marcel Gayle, these overseas-based players, who are from England and the United States, will be given a fair opportunity to impress the coaching staff in order to be selected for the national team.
MAKING A JUDGEMENT AFTER ARRIVAL
“They will be arriving next week, and when they arrive, we will take a final look at them, and then we will make a judgement from there,” said Gayle.
“These are based in the United States and England, and I think that these players can add value to the programme because we need the best players out there at all times to help the country to qualify,” he said.
The Concacaf Under-20 Men’s Championship will not only serve as the qualifier for the 2023 Under-20 World Cup, but also for the 2024 Olympic Games. All four semi-finalists will advance to the Under-20 World Cup, and the two finalists will take the two automatic Olympic spots.
Gayle, who is head coach of Jamaica Premier League outfit Waterhouse, pointed out that these overseas-based players have been playing at a very high level and therefore he is expecting to add a lot of quality to the team.
“All of them are elite players because some of them are playing in Division One or Division Two in England, and some of them are playing in USL (United Soccer League),” he said.
“The players that are here have been working hard, and we still have a few more players that we will be looking at today [Wednesday] in St Thomas before we settle on a pool of about 35 players,” Gayle said.