Gordon Williams, Gleaner Writer
Harbour View's Keith Kelly (foreground) ... 'a very interesting player' - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
A former star of two youth World Championships and a couple players from the current Under-20 team will be in Jamaica's national senior football squad to prepare for the next round of World Cup qualifiers.
However, technical director René Simoes has no intention to invite the same massive quota of overseas-based players he called for last month's games against The Bahamas.
Promising midfielder
The local-based contingent of the Reggae Boyz will reassemble for a camp around August 4 following their involvement in last weekend's 0-0 draw against El Salvador in Texas. This time, according to Simoes, the squad will include Harbour View's Keith Kelly, a 25-year-old midfielder, who showed tremendous promise early in his career, but has been troubled by injuries and sub-par conditioning.
Kelly was a star for Jamaica at the 1999 Under-17 Youth World Championships and signed with French club Paris St Germain after that tournament. The stocky playmaker from Port Royal was later loaned out to Belgian club Mons. Kelly also excelled in the Under-20 YWC in 2001.
He started his club career at Harbour View, but also played for Arnett Gardens in the premier league before returning to the east Kingston side last year. In between, he played for CL Finiancial San Juan Jabloteh in Trinidad, where he broke his leg in November 2005, a major setback to his career.
Kelly, a former Wolmer's schoolboy representative, first played for the senior national team against Costa Rica in a World Cup qualifier in 2001. The last of his 10 senior caps came in February 2005 in a CONCACAF Gold Cup qualifier against Barbados.
Still, Kelly impressed Simoes in a recent practice game for Harbour View against the national team prior to its departure for Texas and has earned the Brazilian's approving nod as his search for additional talent to bolster the Boyz continues.
"That's why I am so excited because Keith Kelly is returning with Harbour View," Simoes said while in Texas last weekend.
Asked if Kelly would be part of the next squad, Simoes said: "Definitely, yes. This is a great player. We played against each other. So, next squad Keith Kelly will be with us. I am so excited. When I arrived in Jamaica and met him, he was fat. And I told him: 'Come on man, start work now. You have a place here (in the national programme)'. That's really a very interesting player to see."
Simoes is also excited about a couple prospects in the current Under-20 team, which waltzed through a recent World Cup qualifying tournament in the Cayman Islands.
Local balance
The team went unbeaten against the hosts, Bermuda and Puerto Rico, scoring nine goals without conceding any. However, the technical director was more cautious about naming those players.
"These under 20 players that are playing now, they have at least two players there that I am very serious about them," he said. "Two players. I will not tell you the names. Again, because you say the name, everybody now say they are Reggae Boyz players and maybe they are not well balanced and the players lose focus. Next camp you will see (them)."
But Simoes was blunt when explaining that the influence of overseas-based players will be significantly trimmed for future qualifiers. The local players will play a greater role in the balance.
"I will move and make local camp with these (local) boys, try to improve them," he said. "Definitely, one thing I tell you, I will not go for 17 overseas-based players. No, I'm not."
On Saturday, he declined to offer a number or percentage of the squad which will be from overseas.
However, Simoes explained that it had become difficult to blend the unit with so many players arriving just prior to a game. With no official word on another warm-up match prior to the Canada fixture, it is likely that the overseas-based players will not be available for the national team more than a few days before August 20.
Simoes was not totally pleased about the approach of some players for the Bahamas fixtures.
He also said that the extended absence of the overseas-based players put them at a disadvantage in grasping the 'model' or philo-sophy for the team he is trying to implement.
"The point is, I don't have them together," he said. "They don't understand clearly your principles. They don't understand clearly what they're supposed to do.
"It is very difficult for them, to be fair with them. It's not a matter that I don't want to do it. It's I can't do it, because the players, they cannot do it. Because they change the way they play, the mentality of coach they have.
"When you play professionally, especially in England, money is the name of the game. Money, money, money, money. When you play for Jamaica, it cannot be. Jamaica is the country on boots, on football boots. It's a different conception."
Despite his intention to cut the number of overseas players in the squad, Simoes does not anticipate making wholesale changes to the core of the team that beat The Bahamas 13-0 on aggregate over two legs played in Jamaica.
"(It's) not totally different team, but the squad will be different," he explained. "The (starting) team, a few touches (changes). One or two."
Money, money
Meanwhile, Simoes said he is not worried by Jamaica's inclusion in the so-called CONCACAF 'Group of Death', alongside Mexico, Canada and Honduras.
He believes the competition will get his team ready for the final push for a place in World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
"That's good, not bad, because (the countries) who qualify from this group will be well prepared for the next stage," he explained. "So, if you beat a weak group and you qualify, you are not well prepared for the other one. It's good."
Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.
