England, with perhaps the exception of the USA, was indeed a second home to Captain Horace Burrell. He was at ease there.

He has travelled to and has spent a lot of time over many years in the European country on business and pleasure — Moreso business.As a military officer, he had been to England on training as a youthful son of the soil and a member of the Jamaica Defence Force. But in later years, London in particular, became a meeting place to negotiate football deals and to woo English-born players to wear the colours of their Jamaican ancestral home. He has had resounding success with both.England was also a regular stopover on his way to and from those many high-level meetings at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.Naturally, Burrell has made many friends — in and outside of football — across the United Kingdom on his many visits. Also, he liked to visit relatives, catching up on old times.Like Jamaica and Miami, Captain Burrell was at home in England. Truth be told, the late Jamaica Football Federation president was at home anywhere in the world for he was a man always on the move spending many hours in the skies.His death on Tuesday in Baltimore, USA, where he was a patient at the Johns Hopkins Cancer Treatment Center, sent tremors throughout Britain and the wider football world.The English-born and raised football agent and promoter Winston Clarke, who was a close friend and formed part of Burrell’s privileged inner circle, was flattened by the news of the passing, but came back to bloom as he regaled “the great man”.“I have known Captain for over 20 years. and his never-say-die attitude, his determination and his resilience, and his ability to get things done, even when they look against the odds, are redeeming qualities you don’t find often and I think those qualities make him stand out in a crowd,” Clarke told the

Jamaica Observer on Wednesday from London.“As someone who was born and raised in the UK, we have the view that many Jamaicans are laid back and everything was tomorrow, but Captain was the opposite of that because everything for him was now, today. In continuing that point, his idea of getting things done immediately gave Jamaica a distinctive advantage over other Caribbean countries because Jamaica was always at the forefront in footballing activities to benefit the country,” added Clarke.The principal of International Sporting Connections promotes the view that Burrell’s bravado, larger-than-life attitude and determination distinguished him from ordinary men.“I think it’s easy to discuss and take a back seat and wait for things to happen, but he wouldn’t do that… he was always pushing, whether it’s in the Caribbean arena, the CONCACAF arena or FIFA. To be fair, sometimes you may even chuckle at his lack of diplomacy sometimes, but that’s how, we have seen over the years, many things got done, because he was prepared to push the boat out to make things happen,” he noted.Clarke, who teamed up with Burrell to chisel many deals relating to the football programme, spoke glowingly of the late football executive’s negotiating skills.“If you are on the right side of the table with him, you are in a great place, but if you are on the opposite side of the table making a deal, you are going to get hammered. And I must tell you that he took great pleasure in cutting the best deal for Jamaica. He was a tremendous negotiator and a real deal maker. I have lost a great friend and Jamaica has lost a great man,” noted Clarke.The Briton, whose parents are Jamaican-born, thinks those in football who have survived the Clarendon native has a duty to carry on a rich legacy.“We have already missed and will miss a very great man, and what we must do, those of us who have survived him, is to continue a very positive legacy, and we must ensure that we don’t drop the ball as we should keep working hard.“The legacy of Captain Burrell was well laid and I think it’s now for us to see it fulfilled,” added Clarke, who has been a central figure in helping to negotiate and organise many international football matches involving the Reggae Boyz, including the game against Peru in that country on Tuesday.As talk of Burrell’s likely successor hits the high notes, there are those who have rightly stated that the late football boss’s boots will be hard to fill.But Clarke’s view is slightly off the common course, preferring to advance the position that Burrell’s rein in charge of the JFF in two stints — 1994 to 2003 and 2007 until his death — would have laid a solid foundation that should provide a successor with ease in assuming the role.“I think his boots will be quite easy to fill, and I tell you why… he had the charisma, he had the dynamism, the personality, and what that has done is rubbed off on many people within and outside of football, and those people will come to the fore — they have to.“You may not get all the qualities in one person, but you will probably find qualities in a number of persons, and collectively, there will be a drive and determination and a willingness to make sure that football in Jamaica moves forward.“And I am quite convinced of that, so I have no fears about replacing Captain Burrell with someone else like Captain Burrell. I honestly believe what this man’s legacy has done is created a number of persons who have taken a little bit from the great man and will work in favour of Jamaica’s football going forward, and make no mistake about it,” Clarke concluded.Burrell, who was a CONCACAF and CFU vice-president and served on numerous FIFA committees, was the visionary behind Jamaica’s historic France 1998 World Cup qualification.Burrell, who was 67, leaves behind daughter Dr Tiphani Burrell-Piggott and sons Romario and Jaeden.