Malcolm
St George's College striker, Kemal Malcolm, said he was not surprised at his call-up to the Junior Reggae Boyz squad for their upcoming Caribbean Football Union (CFU) final stage play-off, which will be held in St Vincent and the Grenadines in two weeks' time.
The Meadhaven United player, who, with 25 goals, capped the leading goalscorer title in the just-concluded ISSA urban area Manning Cup, is one of two new players who have been added to the squad, which has now been upgraded to 27, with the other being St James High's 15-year-old forward, Allan Ottey, who topped the rural area daCosta Cup, with the same number of goals as Malcolm.
"I wasn't totally surprised as I had put in the hard work and was expecting it, but to know that it has actually happened is a great feeling," said Malcolm, who is 19 and turns 20 late next year.
"My focus at the start of the season was to be the leading goalscorer in the Manning Cup and take it from there.
Opportunity
"Now that it has happened, I plan to make full use of the opportunity by continuing to score goals. I know it will be difficult as there are many other good strikers in the squad, but I plan to give it my best shot," he added.
Malcolm, as evidenced by his performances in the Manning Cup and the all-island Olivier Shield, in which he scored St George's three goals in their 3-2 aggregate win over St James, has very good pace and an eye for the goal. To make the final squad or even the starting 11, he will have to compete with eight other strikers, including the nimble-footed Ottey and his teammate, Shamar Shelton, brother of national senior striker, Luton.
The others are the impressive Dever Orgill (Vancouver Whitecaps), who netted a four-timer and was Jamaica's leading goalscorer in the previous round of qualifiers, high schoolers McKauly Tulloch (Kingston College), Andre Steele (Bridgeport High) and Digicel Premier League (DPL) campaigners Andre Clennon (Waterhouse FC), Alanzo Adlam (Sporting Central Academy) and Roy Forbes (Arnett Gardens FC).
"I would like to thank my coaches, Neville 'Bertis' Bell and Marcel Gayle for keeping me in good shape mentally and physically and the hope is that I will be able to graduate to bigger and better things in the future," said Malcolm, who has on his résumé leading goalscorer awards at the ISSA Under-14 (Pepsi) and Under-16 (Colts) levels and is looking forward to rejoining his club in January for the second half of the DPL.
The young Boyz returned to camp yesterday and will remain in camp until Wednesday. Following a brief break for the Christmas holidays, the players will return to camp on Saturday, December 27, where they will remain until they depart for the tournament on Wednesday, January 7.
Jamaica will play alongside the host country, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Jamaica will open their campaign on Friday January 9, against Haiti. They will then play the Dominican Republic in their second game, before rounding off the trip against the hosts on Wednesday, January 14.