MARLON King’s decision to bring his Reggae Boyz career to a “premature end” has disgruntled Carl Brown.

The former national coach, under whose care King fell when the then Watford star first joined the team in 2004, said the striker’s surprise exit from the international game was a “very sad” moment for him.

“I am sorry to hear how it has ended because Marlon, then, was a very committed national player and the performances that we got from him was just unbelievable, so it is really sad… to see that a career that offered a whole lot has ended the way it has now,” said Brown, who coached the irrepressible player when he initially arrived in Jamaica.

“I hope it is a lesson to all of us that in the future we can prevent endings like these,” added the former Jamaica defender.

King, 32, announced his resignation from the Jamaica national team on Sunday, a day ahead of a proposed meeting with Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Captain Horace Burrell which was designed to reconcile the alienated forward with the team.

The JFF head, along with senior team coach Theodore Whitmore and assistant Alfredo Montesso, is in the United Kingdom on a scouting and fence-mending mission as the Boyz seek to strengthen their ranks ahead of next year’s CONCACAF World Cup qualifying final round.

According to Burrell, King, who has fallen out of grace with the Whitmore-led technical team and has been snubbed for the recent round of World Cup qualifiers after serving a two-match suspension for a curfew rule breach, was one of a slew of players the touring party aims to sit with on the 12-day tour.

Brown, who recently did an extended stint as technical director of the Cayman Islands football programme, said King possessed the goods that could have benefited Jamaica in the CONCACAF final round of six, which also includes USA, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras.

“I believe that he could be of use to us… I remember him getting a hat-trick against El Salvador at the National Stadium… I believe that he has that ability to get goals for us in tough situations.

“In the 18-yard box his physical statue helps him a great deal and probably that is something that is missing from our programme at the moment. But, as they say, the show has to go on and the coaching staff will have to get the others to do the job for us,” said the Boys’ Town FC stalwart.

During his stint coaching King, who has over the years developed the reputation as a ‘bad boy’ of British football, Brown said he found the Birmingham City hitman to be very professional.

“To me, he was the consummate professional who worked very hard; he brought to us what all English players bring, and that is professionalism. They are workmen and they take their jobs very seriously. When it comes to training, they work the hardest.

“I never had any problems with these English players as they are usually the first ones on the bus, and Marlon wasn’t any different from Paul Hall, Fitzroy Simpson and Deon Burton when we got them, plus, there is not one case of indiscipline that I could talk about involving Marlon,” Brown said via cellphone yesterday.

Apart from his recent two-match ban arising from the curfew incident in Panama in May, King was also slapped with a two-year sanction by the Crenston Boxhill-led administration in 2006 when he was deemed to have been disrespectful to Boxhill after he was confronted subsequent to another curfew infringement.

The ban was immediately lifted on the return of Burrell to the helm of the JFF in 2007.

In December 2008, King was convicted for punching in the face a 20-year-old female university student in a London night club, causing a broken nose and split lip, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Brown, who recently returned to his old club, Boys’ Town, as a consultant, told the Jamaica Observer he and King remained close after his stint as national coach.

“We talked a lot, but I really feel bad now as the entire last week I kept saying that I needed to give Marlon a call, particularly when I heard that the mission was going off to England and somehow I didn’t get around to it.

“And yesterday (Sunday) when I heard the news that he retired from international football, I felt very bad because I think maybe I could have made a difference in trying to convince him to stay on,” he noted.

In his statement Sunday, King singled out Brown and Burrell for “their outstanding support during my time with the JFF”.

Brown said he couldn’t comment on the strained relationship between the enigmatic player and the technical staff without the facts, but said, “I am very disappointed it has ended the way it has”.

King scored the first hat-trick of his Birmingham career to secure a draw after the English Championship club were 3-0 down after 19 minutes away to Millwall last month, which brought his total to seven goals from 14 matches.

For Jamaica, King has been on the scoresheet 12 times from 21 outings.