Eyes on transfer window all the time

Gordon Williams, Sunday Gleaner Writer

The cream of Jamaica-based football talent takes the field today, when the National Premier League (NPL) kicks off. But while players embrace the excitement of a new season in the country's top competition, many - whether they admit it or not - wish they were elsewhere.

Those players, especially the privileged few exposed to the bigger stage of international football, ride a roller coaster of emotions. They are proud to represent local clubs and communities, which adore and support them, but disappointed to have failed to interest professional European clubs enough to take a chance on them before the transfer window slammed shut on August 31.

"You have to be thinking about (the window) all the time," explained national midfielder Richard 'Shortman' Edwards, captain of NPL club Harbour View.

"As a player, this is a career and professionally you want to take your career to another level. Going to Europe would be a perfect opportunity."

It's just not available to everyone. Like other local-based players, Edwards, who came close to signing with a Major League Soccer (MLS) club in North America earlier this year, must wait for each window to find out. Most try to stay positive. They've seen deals - for the likes of Ricardo Gardner and Ricardo Fuller - send Jamaicans into top European leagues. Most recently, former Tivoli Gardens star Keammar Daley's moved to Preston North End in England. Opportunities are still coming through for Jamaicans. The key, especially for those who have seen several transfer windows open and close, is to remain patient.

"I know things take time and everything is not gonna happen one time," explained national defender Adrian Reid of Portmore United, who has been to tryouts in Europe and most recently with D.C. United of MLS.

"Some players will move this transfer window. So a next one will come. So I hope I'm in that set to move."

Yet they can't help wondering when - if ever - their time will come. To compound fears, their own body clock warns them they don't have forever. Age, in this game, is not just a number.

"I'm getting older and that's a big factor in football in today's world," admitted 28-year-old Edwards.

The anticipation, prospects of a final reality that a move to an overseas club may never happen and the near misses caused by unfulfilled tryouts or hearing positive tidbits that failed to produce a contract, can be an unsettling combination.

"I get anxious and all of that," said Edwards about each time a transfer window opens.

Yet the perceived rejection, signalled by the closing of the window, can serve a positive purpose. Many players, like Edwards and Reid, use it as incentive to work harder. Some players also accept it as a reality check, one that forces them to re-evaluate life goals and set new priorities - just in case the dream of playing professionally overseas does not materialise. Most accept their current situations, but never stop trying.

"If I'm being a local player and something doesn't happen, that is not going to make me be a lesser player or, you know, make me not concentrate on the task at hand," said Edwards.

Current Reggae Boyz Rodolph Austin, Jason Morrison, Demar Phillips and Damian Williams, for example,  have found solid opportunities in Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Others have played off the European stage, such as the continent of Africa and countries like Vietnam, Trinidad and Tobago, El Salvador, Israel, the US, Puerto Rico and even Brazil. They make a living, often much better than anything they could have earned at home.

For the younger set, transfer window details are not as pronounced because they are just starting out. The attraction to an overseas deal, however, is long branded on their mind. Being a national player adds to their credentials and they know the NPL offers a chance to continue to showcase what they can do.

"What I'm looking forward to is an opportunity," said 25-year-old Keneil Moodie, a national player who represents Montego Bay United (formerly Seba) in the NPL.

"Now playing more games (for Jamaica) will market myself."

Those who have been exposed a while, without landing the overseas contract, find inspiration in others who have earned deals when it seemed the odds were stacked against them. Reid points to former Portmore teammate Williams, who now plays in Norway.

"They were saying (Williams) was finished, can't get any contract and he managed to sign a three-year deal when he was 28," said the 26-year-old. "So I kinda take that as a positive."

Keep focused

Williams, now 30, said he was always "positive" the opportunity to play professionally overseas would come. When it did, he refused to let it go. It's advice he passes on to younger Jamaicans.

"Once you're playing, you have to keep focused, you have to believe and just work hard," said Williams.

"And once you get the chance (to go overseas), you just go for it. You don't need two chances, just one, and you just grab it."

But Williams also warned that even if a player gets a contract overseas, he should only view it as the beginning of the journey. His own experiences have taught him that fresh challenges await.

"No family, no girlfriend, different food, different people, different lifestyle, different culture," Williams explained. "It's not easy."

Others already signed overseas concur. They, like the local players, eye the transfer window, mainly to see if their prospects will improve. But the business of where they play is largely out of their hands.

"So you just keep focusing on your team, your game and try to do your best for club and country," said Reggae Boy Omar Cummings, an MLS All-Star who has attracted interest from clubs in the top English and Mexican leagues.

"Apart from that, you just let things take its course. If it (a transfer) should happen, then it will."

For local-based players, it comes back to how badly they want to get out of Jamaica to play professional football.

"I try and encourage these players that the sky is the limit and they must always reach for the sky," said national senior men's coach Theodore Whitmore, who played professionally in England and Scotland.

"So I'm glad for young Keammar Daley and hope a lot of our local players can follow his footsteps."

They will have to wait and see, when another window opens.