It was a match made in heaven. At the age of 32, Robbie Earle had come to the grudging realisation that his hopes of playing a full international for England were all but over. He’d only been put on a standby list for the 1997 Le Tournoi event despite some excellent performances for Wimbledon.
Meanwhile, after going winless in their first four games in the final round of Concacaf qualifying for France 1998, Jamaica were desperately looking to add to their playing pool as they bid to reach a maiden FIFA World Cup™.
Alongside Earle, Portsmouth duo Fitzroy Simpson and Paul Hall plus Derby’s Deon Burton were recruited for the Reggae Boyz’s crucial clash with Canada in Kingston in September 1997. With the prospect of playing in a global finals for the first – and probably only – time in his career, Earle eagerly accepted the call.
After positive results against Canada, Costa Rica and USA, Jamaica secured the requisite draw with Mexico to reach the World Cup. It was a truly transformational moment for the sport in the Caribbean nation.
With three further Britain-born players in the squad in Marcus Gayle, Frank Sinclair and Darryl Powell, Jamaica went to France 1998 as underdogs. And Earle sealed his place in Jamaica footballing history by scoring his country’s first-ever World Cup goal in the 3-1 defeat to Croatia. After a 5-0 defeat to Argentina, the Jamaicans finished with a flourish by securing a 2-1 win over Japan.
The challenge of overcoming continental heavyweights Canada, Mexico and USA has proven a step too far for the Reggae Boyz since that magical qualifying campaign. But with the three nations having already secured their berths at the FIFA World Cup 26™ as co-hosts, Steve McClaren has put Jamaica in prime position to reach the tournament once again. With two victories from their first two games in the final round of Concacaf qualifying, Jamaica are sitting pretty at the top of Group B.
Ahead of October’s fixtures with second-place Curaçao and Bermuda, Earle, who is now a respected television analyst in the USA, spoke to FIFA about his decision to play for Jamaica, that historic World Cup goal, thoughts on the Reggae Boyz nickname, and the likely impact of the global finals in both Jamaica and the States.
Robbie Earle: I got to Wimbledon, was playing regularly and was captaining the team. I got into a couple of England B squads and was on standby, but never got into a full game. I was chosen in a B game in Russia but never got on to the pitch. It was a situation where both my parents are from Jamaica and I got a call from the Jamaican FA one Sunday evening to see if I was interested in playing for the Jamaican national team. Back in the mid-1990s, I was thinking it was one of my Wimbledon team-mates trying to pull a prank, so I put the phone down. They phoned me back and said it was real and were interested in flying me out.
I was in my early thirties and was pretty settled in my club career, but I had a drive to play international football. This was something I was interested in. I went to a Caribbean competition to see how it went, and we came to an agreement that I would join the group and try to help [Jamaica] qualify for the first World Cup.
It felt vindication of taking the decision. It was a great thing for the country, there was a national holiday the day after it happened. You saw what it meant to the country and football that was growing there. It was a great opportunity for myself, but also for some of the players who were playing locally and all of a sudden were going to be on the world’s biggest stage. I was born in England and even if I got one cap for England, I wouldn’t have had that opportunity, so for me it was a great source of pride. Also it was a bit of my payback to parents, who left Jamaica in their early thirties to come to the UK for education purposes. It was a bit of a thank you to my parents as well.
It depends on how you measure success, but I knew we wouldn’t embarrass ourselves. People were calling us the Reggae Boyz, which I think was a term of endearment but some people took at as a Cool Runnings analogy where we weren’t professional or training properly, but we were far from it. Our Brazilian coach Rene Simoes was outstanding with his attention to detail. We were probably ahead of the time in some of the pressing we were doing. The other thing that stood out to me was there was good local talent that was good enough to play at a European level.
I didn’t hit it all. Ricardo Gardner hit a beautiful ball and I knew a few seconds earlier what he was going to do, so I could make my run and I made my header and it went in. But the problem was it was 1-1 and just before half-time and we went in to the dressing room to make sure we put in a good second-half performance. We then went back to the hotel and you’re on to the next game, which was Argentina, and you kind of just move on.
At the time it didn’t mean that much, but it was only a few days later when I picked up my phone and I had answerphone messages from people all around the world going on about the goal. I’m very proud of it and it’s nice whenever I go back to Jamaica I still get recognised. The great thing about Jamaicans is that they reward people who bring success, so I can have as much rum punch and jerk chicken as I want! It stands me in a good place.
Cricket was the big sport, and basketball was probably second to that because of the American influence, but it put football back in the spotlight and showed kids in the Caribbean that they could earn a good career in football if you go through the right channels. It set a trend for a group of young players who maybe at one time didn’t think it was a great career who were looking to football and what it could do long-term.
It’s been an up-and-down campaign, there hasn’t been a smooth pathway, but now it looks like there is a bit of momentum. It looks like we’re solid enough defensively and there is enough attacking threat… the talent pool is growing and there is a wave of support and enthusiasm now that people are getting excited again. Everybody has fingers crossed that Steve McClaren can finish off the job now. It looks like Jamaica have the right momentum at the right time.
It will be a massive thing for football in the region [if Jamaica qualify], it will give it another opportunity. All the talk in America is that a great World Cup will boost the game to another level. It would be ten times that in Jamaica, because all the kids will be seeing it and will want to mirror what’s happened.
I came over for the 1994 World Cup. What a great tournament it was, and what [great things] it did for the country. I think this next World Cup brings an even bigger opportunity. I travel around the country and the amount of people I see in football shirts from around the world… it’s just going to take football up to another level. The involvement is there and you cannot believe how many people are playing [recreational] football on a Saturday and Sunday morning. Having a World Cup here and having access to the greatest level of football there is will shoot this game to another level. It can only be good for football over here.
Some photos courtesy of Concacaf
