Jamaica national football team, 1997

Jamaica national football team

SPAWNED BY a no-nonsense chief executive officer and prodded, cajoled and inspired by a master motivator from Brazil, the Jamaica football team was the talk of world when it qualified for the World Cup in France in 1997.

Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Captain Horace Burrell was unwavering in his desire to get the Reggae Boyz to France and in technical director Rene Simoes he found the ideal captain of the ship.

The squad endured more than its share of hard knocks along the way but it persevered and on one unforgettable November day in 1997, the Boyz held mighty Mexico to a lacklustre draw at the National Stadium and that solitary point claimed was big enough to book Jamaica a ticket to France '98 ­ the first English-speaking Caribbean team to get all the way to the big dance.

Deon Burton, Theodore Whitmore, Paul Hall, Fitzroy Simpson, Ian Goodison and Ricardo Gardner, et al became household names and carried the hopes of a nation to Europe and the most popular single-sport event in the world.

Drawn in a tough group with perennial world power Argentina, eventual semi-finalists Croatia and fellow first-timers Japan, the Boyz struggled, losing to the Europeans and South Americans before accounting for Japan in their final Group match thanks to two Goodison strikes.

That marked the end of an incredible odyssey. The squad has changed dramatically now and Simoes is at the helm of Trinidad and Tobago, but oh what a ride those Boyz of 1996-'97-'98 took us on.