GENERAL secretary of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), Horace Reid, yesterday confirmed contact was made by former technical director Rene Simoes for the purpose of securing the services of a number of Reggae Boyz.
Simoes, who guided Jamaica top a historic place in the World Cup finals, is now in charge of Brazilian club team Portuguesa and was reported on a local web site (homeviewjamaica.com) to have told the Brazilian media he was interested in two Jamaican left-sided players in order to strengthen his team.
"Well, I cannot say much more than that I did speak with him," Reid said yesterday.
"We are still hoping to have some discussion later tonight," he said.
Reid also said that was as far as the discussions went and names of players had not been mentioned.
"We will hopefully be talking about the players this evening as we have been missing each other over the holidays," he said.
While the report stated the players desired by Simoes were left-sided ones, Reid said he was not certain about that as it had not been discussed.
If the players are indeed left-sided ones then among those under consideration could be the Harbour View duo of Jermaine Hue and Robert Scarlett, Waterhouse's Irvino English, Village's Shane Crawford, Winston Griffiths of Galaxy and Omar Daley of Hazard.
"A break like this would be wonderful for our prestige as everyone knows Brazil is now the world's largest factory for football players," Reid was quoted was saying on the site.
Portuguesa, who play in the overall Brazilian and Sao Paulo Championships (Paulista), are looking to reinforce their ranks as some of their top players were sold at the end of the season.
Their best player, Emerson, was sold to French club Lyon. They have signed Brazilian international Ze Roberto from Juventus as well Rochinha from Vasco de Gama. They are also in negotiations with Atletico Mineiro with the view of signing three players.
