ROSE HALL, St James — Former national goalkeeper and goalkeeper coach Paul Campbell has described the state of Jamaica’s goalkeeping as “heart-wrenching” and has called on stakeholders to rally to ensure the quality of the position does not fall any further behind.

Campbell, who was the goalkeeper coach when Jamaica qualified for the FIFA World Cup in France in 1998, told the

Jamaica Observer recently that “there has been very little progress in a lot of ways”.

“(As a) matter of fact no progress, we have gone backwards… I feel like I have come back 12 to 14 years later and we are back at day one,” he lamented.

Campbell was at the first goalkeeper camp organised by another former national shot-stopper, Donovan Ricketts, through his foundation with assistance from international courier service DHL, at Half Moon hotel two weeks ago.

The camp was over two days and approximately 20 goalkeepers from mostly western Jamaica high schools and as far as St Ann took part.

Campbell, who returned to the United States more than a decade ago, said from his vantage point “these kids are eager, they want to learn and no one is making the effort to go around, find them and coach them”.

“My initial thought was that it is so heart-wrenching to come back and see where we are back to,” he said.

The initiative by Ricketts, who captained the national team before retiring from international duties a few years ago, was “very timely”.

Campbell is calling for more corporate, and other support to boost the effort of Ricketts.

“It can’t fall on just one organisation… it must be a national initiative to help these players. Donovan is trying with the Donovan Ricketts Foundation, but right now the Donovan Ricketts Foundation is just Donovan Ricketts himself,” noted Campbell.

Business people and those who can make donations, he said, “can donate something to help us with the two days and unfortunately the two days fell on Donovan alone with some help from DHL”.

“It’s not something he can continue to do alone although we would like to do it; we can’t bring people’s children here training for three hours plus and don’t feed them or give them something to drink,” the former national goalkeeper went on.

Campbell is ready to put his money where his mouth is and says plans are in the works for him to return and do his part in helping to prepare the next generation of Jamaican goalkeepers.

“I have been coaching at Georgia Express, a small club in the US… I help run the goalkeeper academy there and also every year for the last 13 years we have a goalkeeper camp in Maine with Team Prep. We are currently in negotiations to come here with Team Prep to do some goalkeeping camps next summer,” he said.

“It’s something (coming back to coach in Jamaica) I have always been looking at and want to do… I feel that my passion is not just goalkeeping, but Jamaican goalkeeping.”