VIENNA, Austria — It was a bittersweet moment for Liam Moore when former Reggae Boy Wes Morgan lifted the English Premier League Trophy in 2016 to signal Leicester City’s massive upset victory.

It was great because he was on the books of his boyhood club at the time, but it was equally depressing as he was ineligible for a winner’s medal having not competed in at least five of the games for the club that season.

He has since moved on from Leicester City and is now captain of Reading Football Club.

Morgan had asked if he would consider representing Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz at senior international football, and the former England Under-17, Under-20 and Under-23 player did not hesitate.

It has been a long, drawn-out process for the strongly build centre back, but he now believes it was worth the wait.

“It’s been a couple of years now…Wes Morgan at Leicester, I played with him and he contacted me and asked if it [representing Jamaica] is something I would be interested in and from then on it’s just been a process of about 14 or 15 months getting my passport sorted. It’s been a few trips to the Embassy [High Commission], few delays and Covid didn’t help, but about four weeks ago I received my passport so it was worth the wait. I’m ready to play and help the country,” he told the Jamaica Observer yesterday here at the team’s hotel in Austria.

Moore is eligible to represent Jamaica through grandparents, who are from the eastern parish of St Thomas.

Though he has not been to Jamaica since childhood, the 28-year-old says he’s shared a special relationship with his Nana (grandmother), who used to prepare regular Sunday meals of jerked chicken with rice and peas and mac cheese.

Yesterday it was obvious to all that Moore wore his heart on his sleeve, literally.

“Very, very proud to get here yesterday [Monday], to get my tracksuit and put on the colours,” he shared. “I’m very proud and obviously we have to quarantine for a day until our test results are back, but just looking forward to getting on the grass now, that’s the main thing.

“We have a couple of days to prepare for a big game and then throughout the year we are stocked with big games and we’ve all got one goal, we know where we want to get to and it’s about the hard work between now and then.”

Last night in wintry conditions here at SV (Sport Club) Wiener Neudorf the Boyz got the chance to take to the pitch for the first time since their arrival and Moore looked every bit the quality player seen regularly marshalling his Reading backline.

The game might have changed over time, but Moore proudly declared that he’s a defender who still enjoys the challenge of defending his goal.

“I am a centre back, a player that loves to defend…I think in the game now it’s a dying art, not too many people like doing it, but I love to defend. I think the most important thing is to do whatever you can to keep the ball out the back of the net and then as the game’s developed over the years it’s important that we start attacks, build from the back and with some of my experiences with managers I’ve played under over the years, that’s helped and I hope to bring that to the Reggae Boyz.

“It’s a process and we as players are aware of what our common goal is. I think we have to speak it to believe it and that’s the World Cup and it’s been a long time, too long, but if we can gel as quickly as possible, then there’s absolutely no reason we can’t get there and make the country proud again.”

Apart from his love of Jamaican food, culture and purpose, More says his Nana is energetic, positive and encourages a sense of togetherness, traits that place the Reggae Boyz aside from other groups of people.

“I think if we can bring that into camp and into our football, we’ve got a great chance of succeeding and get to where we want to be in a year’s time.”

He added that it’s time for this generation to emulate head coach Theodore Whitmore’s golden generation and try to go one step further.

“But it’s a process, one step at a time, we’ve got to qualify for the World Cup first and foremost and then when we are there we want to try to achieve something. We don’t want to be there to make numbers up, we really want to put Jamaica on the map and let people know that there are some very good players there,” Moore said.

He said it’s a moment Jamaica deserves.