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No place in Reggae Boyz for new players
September 05, 2023
For the next three years, the Reggae Boyz will be fully active during FIFA's international window with official games and competitions, and coach Heimir Hallgrimsson believes this is a positive, but contends it may limit the opportunities for new faces to come into the squad.
"All FIFA dates leading up to 2026 are filled with official matches," the Icelandic coach told a recent press conference. "It is not an option on FIFA dates to select who we play. It will be official matches. That is good because we do not need to find opponents or find places.
"Everything is official, but it is negative in a way that it gives us so little chance to look at players and give them chances to gain experience with the other players," he said.
Nevertheless, Hallgrimsson said there is a contingency plan in place for promising young players to impress the coaches and get international experience.
He pointed out that they have plans to establish an under-21 team with the brightest young talents and provide them with opportunities to develop and show their qualities.
They will also organise games for fringe players out of season or during international windows.
"We need to find opportunities, maybe in January when we have players from the US, to give them a friendly so we can look at them, but also what is important is the under-21 team. That is what we have been pushing, and we have had a good response.
"We are building the team for 2026, and we need to start regularly playing the under-21 team so they can get the platform to grow," he said.
National assistant coach John Wall, who has been charged with organising the under-21 programme, said it will impact the national team positively.
"We must start looking at the FIFA window for our under-21 games. We can look at calling up more players and expanding the pool we will select from," he stated.
The Reggae Boyz will play Honduras and Haiti in the Concacaf Nations League on Friday and next week Tuesday, respectively.
