LIMA, Peru — Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz go into today’s friendly international against Peru, with heavy hearts.

When they kick off at the Estadio de La Unsa at 7:30 pm in Arequipa, 500 miles south of here, they are expected to pay tribute to Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president, Captain Horace Burrell, who passed away last week Tuesday in the USA after a year-long battle with cancer.

Burrell was 67.

According to team manager Roy Simpson, the visionary leader will be honoured during this evening’s game.

“Everybody, including staff, will wear black armbands and I know Winston Clarke, who coordinates these games on behalf of the federation, has reached out to our counterparts in Peru that the players would gather in the centre circle and would ask everybody in the stadium to stand and observe a minute of silence to acknowledge Captain before the kick-off,” he told the Jamaica Observer in the Peruvian capital yesterday.

Simpson admitted that an air of gloom hover over the players and staff as everybody tries to come to grips with the death of Burrell, the man many has credited for almost single-handedly driving a dream of qualifying Jamaica to their historic France 1998 World Cup Finals.

“I think everybody is feeling melancholic at this time. When we gathered in Miami, the first question from the players was, ‘manager how are you doing?’ because we had lost our president Captain Horace Burrell.

“This was one of the rare times that I have been working on an international game and two tournaments and I have not spoken to Captain at least 12 times for the day and until various hours.

“When we were in Miami on our way over here myself and some players were having some jokes that normally when we wait to board for our onward journeys, we would anticipate seeing Captain marching onwards to us and greeting everyone with his LV (Louis Vuitton) pouch, and everybody liked that. In fact we were joking yesterday (Sunday) that because player Je-Vaughn Watson has an LV pouch and we were saying that we didn’t realise he was so well liked by Captain that he got his portion of the inheritance already,” Simpson said followed by a hearty laugh, an almost perfect impression of the one Burrell had become known for.

The team manager noted that already the former JFF boss’s imposing figure and spark were missing.

“Even here at the hotel you would anticipate Captain coming down for breakfast, talking with everybody and we would look forward for that boisterous laugh,” said Simpson from the Wyndham Hotel at the Jorge Chaves International Airport, where the Boyz had spent the night yesterday before departing for Arequipa, their final destination.

Veteran midfielder and the New England Revolution player, Je-Vaugh Watson, remembered Burrell as the man who fought for the good of the players.

“For football in Jamaica he did so much, even with his own money, because in Jamaica it’s hard to get sponsorship… he was also the guy who was always fighting for players to make sure everybody was comfortable, and anybody who comes into that job will have big shoes to fill.

“Since his passing all the guys have been talking about is if Captain was here he would have said this and he would have done that, so it’s different not to have him here as he was always here to motivate the guys,” said the former Houston Dynamo man.

Another senior team member who has had a long association with Burrell, defender Jermaine Taylor, recalled him as “a giant and had the heart of a lion”.

“He was the one that when you talk about Jamaica at large, he will be the one who would ride proudly with the flag in his back. When I heard the news that he died I couldn’t move from where I was as I was so shocked.

“But nevertheless, it’s life, but a lot of the players, including myself, have taken it hard. But we have to look at the flip side that he laid a legacy down and a good foundation for us as players. He was a great leader and I adopted a lot of his style as he was man when he set out to do his thing, he is going to do it,” said Taylor.

New York Red Bulls left-back Kemar Lawrence, who recently lost his dear grandmother Norma Seymour, said losing Burrell was like losing another family member.

“He was the leader of the federation and I don’t think you have enough people who love their country passionately enough like him, and it’s a tough way to lose him.

“Having seen him over the course of the last couple of games and to see him smile knowing he was fighting a horrible sickness, was good. We have to now pick up where he left off and to take up that baton and carry it to the next level and hopefully make him proud,” he shared.

Lawrence, a former Harbour View standout, said his personal standout memory with Burrell included his late grandmother, Norma.

“I was always on the phone talking with my grandma and he would always come by and tell me to tell grandma hi, or he would actually sit down and have a conversation with me and her while we are on speaker, and I am thankful for those times,” he noted.

Goalkeeper Ryan Thompson, who is currently playing for Central FC in Trinidad and Tobago, said Burrell’s legacy will stand the test of time.

“He left a great legacy and it’s just up to us to just carry it on and we must remember him in a positive way as he has done so much for Jamaica football. I remember in 1998 when we qualified for the World Cup and I was just a kid then, and he was at the forefront of that, and he deserves all the respect that can be showered on a person,” he stated.

Burrell, who served as the JFF president from 1994 to 2003 and 2007 until his death, is survived by daughter Dr Tiphani Burrell-Piggott and sons Romario and Jaeden.

— Sean Williams