Golden Ticket Showcase uncovers four future football prospects

Four young Jamaican players have put themselves in a great position for overseas opportunities in the near future, after they were selected from a group of 150 who participated in the first staging of the Golden Ticket U13 Football Showcase at Constant Spring Sports Complex last weekend.

Gary Graham of Set-Play Academy, who worked in collaboration with Tyrell Palmer of Spruce Academy to organise the event, said after two days of training and assessing the players, the four were identified and they think the players chosen have ‘exceptional talent’ and can do well internationally, as well in Europe.

The Golden Ticket organisation will continue to track the development and progress of these players through their clubs, coaches and parents to ensure they are ready when the opportunity arises.

“There definitely will be opportunities for them to transition. Opportunities in Europe, as well as the United States, but we want to make sure we are getting continuity.

“They must keep up the level at school academically. They must have good behaviour at school, at home, as well, with their clubs.

“If their coaches inform us that they are improving when we return we will be able to identify what those International opportunities could be,” he said.

He pointed out also that Palmer, with his ties to West Ham as a youth scout, can get the players immediate opportunities at that English Premier League club, but said that they have a duty to ensure the players are as prepared as possible.

“We have got connections with all of the teams in England and my business partner Tyrell, he works for West Ham. His job is to scout U9 up to U18 for West Ham.

“If there is a boy that is outstanding and everything goes well, we can bring him to West Ham next week if possible, but we don’t want to rush it.

“We want to make sure everything makes sense. Make sure he gets a fair opportunity when he does come over. So we need to make sure that all the boxes are ticked between themselves, parents and clubs so that we can get a better finished article,” he said.

Looking to expand

For next year’s staging Graham said they are looking to expand the showcase to at least a week. They also want to have a separate showcase for girls.

“Next year we intend to return in the summer to do something much larger and appeal to the wider island. Ninety per cent of the boys were from Kingston.

“We want to get boys from all over because we believe there is talent everywhere.

“We intend to do the next one over a week or two. So they will have more opportunities to train, a little bit more time to assess them over three or four days and lead up to a final showcase fun day, “ he said.

“Also we had two female participants, who stood out tremendously. So that also give us a thought for the future that the female side of the game is very advanced at the younger age here.”

There were 150 boys registered on day one of the showcase, plus 18 non-registered boys. “That showed there was a big appetite,” Graham stated.

The boys were divided into four nine-a-side teams, with substitutes, and best 60 from those games were selected.

“We were looking for good attitude, good application, boys willing to listen and take instructions, which made it a little difficult to narrow it down to the 60.”

Day two was more about the technical abilities of the players and their attitude out of possession.

“We were looking for that attitude as soon as the ball was lost, because everyone makes mistakes. It’s what you so when you don’t have the ball, which was really impressive to us.”

He added, “We are not here to sell dreams. If they are good enough we will take them to Major League Soccer. We will take them to the Premier League and give them that opportunity and exposure.

“This (staging) definitely was a success and I think we have identified boys who can go on to the next level in a short period of time. So we are even more excited.”

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com