Gordon Williams, Contributor
Williams
'The Bomber' was late for a telephone hook-up. So he apologised.
"Sorry! The coach wanted to see me so I had to go," Andy Williams explained from his hotel room in Florida on Thursday afternoon.
"For a moment I wondered if he was going to tell me I had been traded," he added with a laugh.
If Williams' cheer sounded more like relief, it's hard to blame him. Entering his 10th season of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top football competition in the United States, the man Jamaicans nicknamed 'Bomber' for his powerhouse shots knows anything is possible in the professional game. And some of it can be downright cold.
"Being traded is no fun," explained Williams, who makes his home in the US and has already been with six MLS clubs, bouncing from states such as Ohio, Florida, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and Utah since his debut in 1998.
"You just have to pack up and move when they tell you. Sometimes you don't get to see your family for months. It can be hard."
Despite entering his third consecutive season with Real Salt Lake (RSL), the most he has spent with a single MLS team, earning more than 80 senior international caps for Jamaica, scoring 12 goals and helping to orchestrate Jamaica's historic run to the 1998 World Cup finals in France, Williams knows there is no guaranteed security in professional football.
nomadic football life
At 30, after countless games, and tryouts both in North America and Europe, he claims to have shrugged off the wear and tear of his nomadic football life and is still at the top of his game. Yet he can't help notice the signs that times are changing.
"Playing-wise I don't feel old," explained the man who played in the World Cup at age 20. "Only difference is I'm the second oldest on the (RSL) team now. Growing up, I was always among the youngest in the team, no matter which team."
So, gone is the swashbuckling arrogance of immature youth, which caused controversy in France when he ill-advisedly argued for more playing time at the World Cup and was correctly reprimanded by technical director René Simoes. He regrets the incident and explained that all was patched up.
"We got past that," Williams said.
The turmoil has been replaced by a more settled life, including nurturing his own family - a wife and three children - and responding positively to the adulation of his peers.
"The roles are different now," Williams said. "Younger guys look up to me."
While he lists his hobby as spending time with his family, that does not mean Williams is ready for the retirement's rocking chair just yet. He yearns to play for Jamaica, even after an abrupt retirement from the national team in 2005 at age 27, while still the captain and when most players are in their prime.
In December 2007, he re-signed with RSL for a few more years and plans to be in the MLS for as long as he is able to compete.
"As long as I can play," Williams said of his future as a pro. "Once I feel I'm getting too slow, I'll make way for the young bucks."
This year, like the others, he has set specific individual and team targets for the MLS season.
"Every year I try, first and foremost, to be in the starting 11," the playmaker explained. "If that doesn't happen, I try to contribute in every game; lead the team in assists, make playoffs and win a championship."
Williams has managed to accomplish some of his goals with RSL. In 2007, he appeared in 24 games, starting half of them, tallying 1,277 minutes with a goal and three assists. For his MLS career he has played in 222 games, 168 as a starter, logging 15,484 minutes on the pitch. He has recorded 69 assists and his total of 24 goals has come from 367 shots.
Yet he missed the important mark of making the playoffs with RSL last year, his second season with the club, although he showed that he has not lost the deadly weapon that brought him his nickname.
In August 2007, as RSL's game against the Kansas City Wizards edged towards the final whistle, Williams collected a pass near the half line and fired a 50-yard rocket that whizzed by Wizards' goalkeeper Kevin Hartman and into the net. The strike immediately became a contender for MLS goal of the year and reminded the league that the man who scored its 5,000th goal in 2005 was still a potent force.
Williams, who will set off to Argentina on a pre-season tour with RSL soon after completing training camp in Florida this weekend, hopes Simoes believes that as well. He keenly follows the fortunes of the Reggae Boyz and admits to missing the national programme. Already he has informed the Jamaica Football Federation of his willingness to return for the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.
"Whenever, if they call me," Williams said, "I'll be happy to go play."
If that day comes, the Bomber promises, he won't be late.
Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.
