He did not take to the field to earn his first international cap, but his name was among the 22-man list in the referee’s possession when Jamaica opposed Costa Rica inside Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica last Tuesday night.

And just for that, Chevone Marsh — the young, talented, Cavalier Soccer Club midfielder leader — is floating on the proverbial cloud nine.

“Yeah, for sure, it’s one of the greatest moments of my career as you can see a crucial World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica and from I’m in the squad I’m in the coach’s plans, so I’m ready if called upon,” said Marsh immediately after he exited the pitch at the end of Jamaica’s mandatory one-hour training session at the game venue on Monday night.

“First and foremost I have to give God thanks… I’m overwhelmed and I’m feeling great to be included in the qualifying team and rubbing shoulders with genuine, top, professional players – the Wes Morgans, the Taylors (Jermaine), the Taxis (Kemar Lawrence); it is a great feeling being amongst the guys for this crucial World Cup qualifying,” he beamed.

Marsh, the diminutive, yet crafty midfielder with good balance and technical ability on the ball, was drafted into the Jamaica set-up as a late replacement firstly for the injured Giles Barnes in the first leg at the National Stadium on Good Friday.

Then he travelled to Costa Rica in a squad reduced by one with the withdrawal of Reading FC’s Garath McCleary, who suffered a calf strain. Popularly called Messi, Marsh, instead of feeling dejected about watching both games from the substitutes’s bench, is savouring every moment spent with the senior professionals.

“Everyone has greeted me well and I have made an impression in training from early and they have started to respect me and we are relating better,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“We go for lunch together and it’s good. For me it’s getting experience talking to the professionals, I get a boost and I’m learning a lot here right now.”

He revealed that he pays keen attention to the behaviour of these players, in an effort to try and learn as much as possible.

“The lifestyle of a Morgan, how he operates as a pro, the McAnuffs (Jobi), the Mariappas (Adrian) — just watching them and see how they operate, how they are on time for meetings, training, and how they relate to each other,” he explained.

“They encourage me and let me know that I’m young, full of talent, and that I should be ready whenever the coach calls upon me because I’m training well and have the talent and can make it anywhere in the world if I just believe,” said the former Calabar High School Manning Cup standout, who guided Cavalier from the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association Super League into the National Premier League.

He now hopes that he can take all the good traits he has learnt with him to his Cavalier club to make himself and his teammates event better.

“I can take a lot of things like the training I’m getting here, because it’s much better, because it is at the higher level and the intensity that we train at,” he suggested.

— Ian Burnett

— Ian Burnett