By Nodley Wright, Freelance Writer
Donovan Ricketts (left) poses with his compatriot and new Bolton teammate Ricardo Gardner. - Contributed
NATIONAL GOALKEEPER Donovan Ricketts is now a bona fide Bolton Wanderers player.
The 26-year-old goalkeeper, who has come up through the national ranks, and who was the third choice goalkeeper at Jamaica's historic appearance at the 1998 World Cup in France, was last week granted a work permit.
"A loan deal becomes official on January 1 and he has already received a work permit," said Pat Garel of Logosport Jamaica and Ricketts' local representative.
Already Ricketts is settling in with the club.
"They have provided an apartment for him which he moved into last week. His transportation will be sorted out this week," Garel told The Gleaner over the weekend.
The club too has already taken a liking to Ricketts. "The feedback that we have got from them is that they love him there. They love his attitude, humility and punctuality," Garel added.
Garel described Ricketts' move, the first for a local goalkeeper, as "groundbreaking."
"We, the country that is, have tried to place a goalkeeper abroad for some time. This has proven to be the most difficult position in which to place a player. The idea held by the clubs was that our training methods were not up to worldwide standards," said Garel.
The player, who marginally missed out on signing for an English First Division club last year because he was just short of required percentage of international matches played for him to qualify, is happy with his new situation, according to his representative.
HAPPY WITH ARRANGEMENT
"He is happy with the arrangements and is ready to jump in at the deep end as the number two goalkeeper. If Jussi Jaskalainen gets injured then he will be the automatic choice. That will offer him the chance to establish himself."
In outlining discussing the arrangements for Ricketts, Garel sought to clarify a number of things. Among them were that the friendly internationals against Australia and Brazil had nothing to do with Ricketts securing the deal.
"Donovan going to Rushden and Bolton was pre-arranged weeks before the Australia and Brazil friendly internationals. The idea was to have him acclimatised in an environment where he knew someone such as Onandi Lowe," explained Garel, who has represented the former Cornwall College student for close to six years. Ricketts was brought to her by another client, Christopher Dawes, while both players represented Galaxy in the National Premier League.
Rushden and Diamonds coach Brian Talbot, she said, agreed to host Ricketts at the club as a favour to herself and Lowe, who has excelled since joining the club close to two years ago. This is not the first time that such an arrangement was made. Last year a similar arrangement was made by Garel for the first-string national goalkeeper, Aaron Lawrence. They were also pleased with Lawrence's performance.
Ricketts, according to Garel, could have been at Rushden training before the Brazil game but it was decided - in consultation with the player - to have him train with the national team and then join up with Rushden after.
"After the Brazil match he was picked up by the Rushden people where he trained for seven days. Following that he was taken to Bolton by Talbot. Talbot told Sam Allardyce that he would be missing out if he did not take the player," Garel said.
So impressive was Ricketts that he did not spend the entire time on trials.
"They decided early that they wanted him and based on they that canceled a reserve game in which he was expected to feature," explained Garel.
She added that if Bolton did not take Ricketts then Rushden would have snapped him up and kept him in the shop window for the rest of the season.
