TUCKER, St James – When the Montego Bay United (MBU) team starts the defence of its Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) title on Sunday, 35-year-old Dwayne Ambusley will be leading from the front as the St James club makes a bid for a third title in four seasons.

“Stebbe”, as he is affectionately called, has defied the passage of time as he continues to perform at a high level in the middle of the field for the MBU team that have stayed at the top of the league for the past three years.

Ambusley is the only link left from Seba United, the former two-time Premier League champions that changed name to Montego Bay United after qualifying for the RSPL at the end of the 2010-11 season. He was expected to call it a day after they won a second RSPL title in three seasons.

However, retirement will have to wait as Ambusley will not just retain his place in the team, but will retain the captain’s armband after impressing new coach Serbian Slavisa Bozicic.

Days after they beat Portmore United 2-1 at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in last season’s RSPL final, Ambusley told the Jamaica Observer West he was “going with the flow and would play as long as I could”.

“As we speak I have no plans [about football]; I am just celebrating,” said the player who has been part of four national finals in the last three years.

“I will sit down with management and decide the way moving forward. I want to know what is the plan for next season — this is not going to be short term, always going to be long term — and whatever capacity they want me to play in, whether player/coach or cutting back on my playing time, we will see.”

Ambusley, who said he had never had a major injury since he has been playing the game, starting at Rusea’s High, told the Observer West then, “my body feel good; it’s at the end of the season and we are champions, so the adrenaline is flowing, but I don’t feel very tired at all.”

— Paul A Reid