KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC-Jamaica has announced a 23 man squad, dominated by foreign based players, to face Mexico in the first phase of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying campaign.
Only three members of the squad, named during a news conference at the JFF headquarters, are based in the country.
Selectors have included four players who have been raised in the United Kingdom and who have been shortlisted from an original group of eight recently recruited by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF).
Reading FC’s pair of Joel McAnuff and Garath McCleary, Jermaine Beckford of Huddersfield, and Derby County’s Theo Robinson will don Jamaican colours when they play away to Mexico at the famed Azteca Stadium next Wednesday.
McAnuff, midfielder and captain of Reading FC, first represented Jamaica over 10 years ago against Nigeria in London.
McCleary, Beckford, and Robinson are all forwards.
Marvin Elliott, a central midfielder from Bristol City, has been recalled.
Elliot debuted for Jamaica away to Honduras in a friendly international just over 15 months ago.
Also making a return are Portland Timbers’ veteran goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, midfielder Jermaine Johnson, from Sheffield Wednesday, Notts County central defender Damion Stewart, and Omar Daley, a versatile player from Motherwell in Scotland.
Jamaica is competing for one of three spaces from the final round of six countries in its bid to qualify for the Brazil 2014 World Cup Finals.
The fourth-placed finisher in the home-and-away fixture will play-off against the Oceania winner for another spot in the Finals.
