Leeds captain Kalvin Phillips approached

[Naminirt]

The Leeds skipper qualifies for the Caribbean country through his dad — and he now faces a massive call over his future.
Midfielder Phillips, 24, was born in Leeds and has always wanted to play for England. But he has never been selected at any level.

Three Lions manager Gareth Southgate is following his progress closely as he develops into one of the best in the business under Marcelo Bielsa.

But Jamaica are in first and have contacted Leeds asking for permission to sit down with Phillips and try to convince him to pick them.

Jamaica see Phillips as a key player in an ambitious push to get back on to the World Cup stage and recreate their Reggae Boyz heroics.

Several dual-nationality stars, including Robbie Earle, helped them make the finals in 1998 and they desperately want Phillips to follow in their footsteps.

England could make a counter move by calling him up for their next internationals.

But Southgate now faces a fight to secure his services.

Phillips was widely rated the best player outside the Prem last season.

And he would be a £25million target for top clubs if Elland Road chiefs ever wanted to sell.

Now the real battle for him is being fought out on the internation

[Lazie]

As long as he is willing to represent the country ..then...

[HL]

Or maybe England owes Jamaica one.

Recall the Sterling negotiations with Cap'n Burrell? I think Jamaica was owed ~100,000+ Pounds (which they received) along with a game against England. Jamaica was thrashed 5Nil (or something like that).

Cap'n Burrel would have pulled this one off.

[USAF]

Can also have a sit down with Isaac Hayden, who plays for Newcastle United. Have those 2 as the DM & CM, in a 4-2-3-1, especially in away WCQ games.

[OJ]

This might be the players agent creating a buzz to get an England call. The JFf gen sec he is not aware of this. And why would we go through his club first would we have a feel out conversation first.

[OJ]

Now see Roy Simpson confirming the approach. Still dont understand why the agents leaked it and why they went to Leeds first.

[JY-SimeyP93]

Despite growing interest from England manager Gareth Southgate to cap players with Jamaican heritage, Jamaican agent Devon Porter has maintained that a number of them remain interested to represent the Reggae Boyz.

The England manager has requested a meeting with four players born to Jamaican parents including Leeds United midfielder Kalvin Phillips for Friday afternoon.

According to the Yorkshire evening post, Kalvin Phillips who was born to a Jamaican father, has received contact from the English FA as they try to cap tie the 24 year old in a competitive fixture for the Three Lions in the UEFA Nations League in September.

Porter recently approached Phillips to enquire whether he would be interested in playing for Jamaica.

Porter who has been recommending players to the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) since 1996, confirmed with Radio Jamaica Sports on Wednesday that he has been tracking Phillips for the past two years.

Southgate is also set to meet with the likes of Everton's Mason Holgate, Manchester United's Mason Greenwood and Arsenal's Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who were all born to Jamaican parents, to ply their trade for England.

Porter says he has also had dialogue with Holgate's representatives. Porter has also highlighted another player who has expressed a desire to play for Jamaica, and that's Manchester United's 19 year old wingback Ethan Laird.

There are currently 124 players in the Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two who were born in England to Jamaican parents or have grandparents who are Jamaican.

The 2022 World Cup qualifiers for the CONCACAF region is slated to kick off in October. The Reggae Boyz will commence action in round three in June next year.

[Sir X]

Dis bredda

Manchester United's Mason Greenwood

[Assasin]

only reasons I can think of is a call to England to see what is there what they have to offer or it means more attention from clubs been that is is a decent player and have interest from somewhere to back it up.

[OJ]

Again I feel they are using these Reggaeboyz interest to force Southgate hand.

[Naminirt]

Reggae Boyz team manager Roy Simpson has revealed that a number of players now showing exceptional form in the English Premier League (EPL) have in the past expressed an interest in donning the Jamaican colours but have failed to complete the process of eligibility. One such player with Jamaican roots is Arsenal FC’s Arsenal right-back, Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Maitland-Niles was one of the stand-out players in Arsenal’s recent 2-0 league win over Manchester United. He then scored against French club Rennes as Arsenal wiped out a 3-1 away deficit with a 3-0 win at home. This latter victory ensured that the Gunners advanced to the last eight of the Europa League, UEFA’s second-level competition. Simpson said that Maitland-Niles, along with other English-born players of Jamaican descent, sometimes make initial contact but they rarely follow through, and the JFF would like to see some effort by the players to take the initiative in getting the process of obtaining a Jamaican passport started.

“Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ interest was expressed during Winfried Schäfer’s time with the Reggae Boyz,” Simpson said. “And we encouraged him, and others, that if they are interested ‘let’s start the process to get eligible.’ “But the thing with most (of these players) is they want to come and play an international friendly, not necessarily to be capped, just only to see what the set-up is like. But we are saying, if you are serious and you know you can contribute to what we are doing and what we want to achieve, then start the process for your eligibility,” Simpson reasoned.

Would Greatly Improve
“What we want is ... if a player is interested, we are hoping he starts the process, and if there is an issue to complete the process, we are able and willing to assist but to say you are interested and do not initiate the process means nothing,” he continued.

Although Simpson strongly believes that securing the services of players of the quality of 21-year-old Maitland-Niles would greatly improve the Jamaican squad, he believes that the approach of some of the overseas-born players to playing for Jamaica is wrong.

“It (wanting to play in friendlies first) is the general sentiment of players who are eligible through descent. But we don’t have those kinds of resources, and we don’t play a great number of games for players to come with the aim of just getting a feel of what is happening.

“We know of a number of other players of Jamaican descent like Newcastle’s loanee to Sheffield Wednesday Ronaldo Aaron, Cardiff City’s Bobby Reid and Watford striker Troy Deeney. I have documents for Deeney from Schäfer’s time here. He gave the impression that he was interested, that he wanted to play and then nothing. Some (players) believe that once they say they want to play, it’s automatic, but it’s a process. So let’s start the process because sometimes these processes can take a long time. So let’s start it and let’s get it over,” he said.

[Assasin]

We don't need nuh whole heap UK players now. We need the coach to look at a few weak areas in his team and get a about 3 players. We shouldn't be in the last minute thing just because world cup is around the corner.

There is a vital thing call chemistry that we need in the team.

[HL]

Did you watch the last gold cup?

Jamaica needs all the help it can get.

Like Tappa...but this thing look larger than him. His coaching style is erratic.

I miss Cap'n Burrell.

[OJ]

I don’t understand what Simpson is saying. “The player don’t want to play in a qualifier they want to play in a friendly”??? So let me guess play the player in a crucial game without knowing how he fits in. I don’t even things get knows miles proper position.

[Assasin]

All help is not help HL. As Ole said, he rather have hole than an 'A hole".

There is a thing called chemistry.