‘Whisper’ will be back soon, says Boyz coach
Published:Saturday | October 7, 2023 | 12:09 AM
On November 10, Jamaican youth prodigy Dujuan ‘Whisper’ Richards turns 18 years old and will become eligible to represent English Premier League (EPL) club, Chelsea, that signed him on a pre-contract in June.
However, yesterday national team coach Heimir Hallgrimsson omitted the young attacker from his squad for the first time in nine games, and the Icelandic coach pointed out that apart from not playing regular football, Richards’ fitness level has deteriorated.
Nevertheless, he believes the player has unquestionable talent and declared that he will continue to support him as best as he can in his development.
“Whisper is not in the squad now. We have to be consistent in what we say and he hasn’t played in such a long time,” Hallgrimsson told a press conference yesterday at the Jamaica Football Federation head office.
“His age is not helping him because he can’t go to Chelsea and start playing (until next month). So we have to wait until he turns 18 and he can start playing football again. Hopefully, he will be sharp when we pick him again.
“But we have to be consistent. It’s been a long time since he played a competitive game. It is a longer time (between games) than we had him the last time. So we haven’t seen him play and it’s just to have consistency in what we are saying but he is in our minds,” he said.
Richards has featured consistently for the Reggae Boyz squad since getting his first call-up against Trinidad and Tobago in March. In the Boyz’s last 12 matches, the former Kingston College star has been left out of the squad just once prior to these upcoming matches, and that was a Nations League game away to Mexico in March.
However, since then he has been named to every squad Hallgrimsson selected, playing seven of the nine matches the team played, scoring one goal.
Hallgrimsson admitted that he really wanted to have the exciting youngster in the squad but insists he has to be fair to the other players, some of whom have been left out on the basis that they are not playing regularly, with a player like Ravel Morrison readily coming to mind.
“I would love to have selected him for this camp because he has done well in recent games for us when given a chance but we have to be consistent in what we say and do. Picking a 17-year-old is always controversial but we have shown that by selecting him, that we rate him. He is going to be a Jamaica national team player for the next 15 years, and it is our job to try and help in this. His time will come for sure,” the Reggae Boyz head coach said.