Aarons Weighing Up A Shot At World Cup Glory With Reggae Boyz
Rolando Aarons, the Kingston-born left winger who plies his trade with Huddersfield Town, is chewing over whether his international future lies with Jamaica.
The left-footed 25-year-old, who represented England at Under-20 level five times and scored twice, is just one of a plethora of British-based players that the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) recently approached.
The JFF have started a push to try to recruit established players who have yet to be capped in a competitive fixture by England. West Ham United striker Michail Antonio has signalled his intent to join Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz for a shot at reaching the highly lucrative FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar next year.
Others targeted by the JFF include Andre Gray (Watford), Isaac Hayden (Newcastle United), Mason Holgate (Everton, on loan at WBA), Liam Moore (Reading), Nathan Redmond (Southampton), Kemar Roofe (Rangers) and Ivan Toney (Brentford).
Former Leicester City winger Demarai Gray, who plays alongside Jamaican ace Leon Bailey at German outfit Bayer Levenkusen, has also been approached.
While one of the Aarons family is considering representing Jamaica, the other – Aarons’ cousin Max Aarons (Norwich City) has not been formally approached by the JFF, yet is eligible for the Boyz.
Rolando, who scored on his England U20 debut in the 6-0 success over Romania, originally wished to break into the senior squad but his chances appear to have diminished so he could be convinced by the JFF over his future.
He joined Newcastle United from Bristol City as a youth player in 2012, and was loaned out to Hellas Verona (Italy), Slovan Liberec (Czech Republic), Motherwell (Scotland) as well as English clubs Sheffield Wednesday and Wycombe Wanderers before settling at Huddersfield Town.
Max is focused on sealing a place in the England U21 squad ahead of the European Championship group stage. The London-born 21-year-old right back has nine U21 caps, so harbours ambitions to represent England at senior level.
Having played regularly in qualification for the U21 European Championship, he is anticipated to be named in the squad for the group stages ahead of games later this month in Slovenia against Croatia, Portugal and Switzerland.
Although he is eligible to represent Jamaica on his father’s side, and has family living on the Caribbean island, he was surprisingly overlooked by the JFF.
With the JFF determined to pull out all the stops in order to reach Qatar 2022 then Jamaica head coach Theodore Whitmore is expected to strengthen his squad for this month’s hastily-arranged exhibition match against the United States in Austria.
This contest will be a rematch of the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup semi-final, which Jamaica lost 3-1. As it falls on a FIFA fixture date then Whitmore will have his pick of players available, and he can potentially introduce any new faces.
Jamaica, currently FIFA-ranked no.47, have made just one World Cup finals appearance. That was at France 1998, when they relied heavily on a British-based contingent that featured players such as Deon Burton, Robbie Earle and Ricardo Gardner.
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