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‘Players from right across the country playing for Jamaica’ - ISSA president credits schoolboy football competition for local talent in U17 squad
February 13, 2026
ISSA president Keith Wellington has praised the wide representation of urban and rural schoolboy footballers who were a part of the U17 Reggae Boyz squad that qualified for the 2026 FIFA U17 Men's World Cup earlier this week.
The young Reggae Boyz booked their spot at the U17 World Cup after topping Group G with a perfect record of three wins.
They opened their campaign with a 3-0 win over Aruba, before thrashing the Cayman Islands 12-0 in dominant fashion.
The Boyz then confirmed their World Cup spot with a decisive 3-1 win over Canada in a top-of-the-table clash.
The U17 World Cup will be held in Qatar in November later this year.
Wellington applauded the team on their successful qualification and said he was proud to see several players from the Manning and daCosta Cup competitions representing Jamaica.
Seven players scored for Jamaica throughout the qualifiers, with five of the seven having competed in schoolboy football.
Kingston College's (KC) Kelvin Brown scored five goals to lead the team, with Jamaica College's (JC) Jamone Lyle scoring thrice and Lacovia High's Tyraun Bembridge scoring twice.
Clarendon College's (CC) Justin Hayles and Manning's School Rajon McKenzie scored a goal apiece along the way.
Wellington said it is a great representation of the Jamaica's footballing talent, and it is important that players island-wide be given the opportunity to compete.
"We have some of our better players in the team being local-based players who play in the Manning and daCosta Cup. We're really proud of them," he said.
"Schoolboy football covers the entire country, provides a level of exposure for every single school, every single player who plays in the competition, and we have players from right across the country playing for Jamaica," he continued.
"We have players from Garvey Maceo, STETHS, Lacovia, Glenmuir and then from the Manning Cup, you had your players from KC and JC. So there was a widespread and is a representation of the spread of talent that is across the country."
Wellington said ISSA football competitions has played a major role as a development platform for Jamaican players in all three of the island's U17 World Cup appearances.
Jamaica has previously qualified for the U17 World Cup in 1999 and 2011.
Wellington said in all three occasions, the national team was largely made up of schoolboy players.
"It's something that we are proud of at ISSA," Wellington said.
"We have qualified three U17 teams to the World Cup over the last 27 years, and for all three teams, the greater majority of the team were students who would have participated in our various competitions from U14 up and this year is no different."
