FORMER senior national men’s football team Head Coach Heimir Hallgrímsson says he has left the national programme in a better place than when he arrived.

Hallgrímsson left the role by mutual agreement with Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) on Sunday night, hours after the Reggae Boyz’s 3-0 defeat to Venezuela in their final Group B game at Copa America. It was their third-straight loss in the tournament, after previous defeats to Mexico (1-0) and Ecuador (3-1).

Hallgrímsson says the decision was amicable, and he and JFF ended on friendly terms.

“I hope it will be a smooth transition,” he said in a video posted by JFF on Sunday night. “It has been done in a friendly way, a good departure — president, gen sec, the vice-president is here. It’s all done in a very Christian manner and we leave as friends, so there’s no grudge from anyone.

He cites results in the Concacaf Nations League away to Mexico and Canada, finishing with a bronze medal in March, as positives. He also mentioned qualifying for Copa America, and what he sees as an improvement in the FIFA world rankings, as pluses of his tenure.

But Hallgrímsson says the biggest positive is that the squad is now what he describes as healthier, on his departure, than when he arrived.

“It’s higher standards, more accountability, more responsibility from the players,” Hallgrímsson said. “There are more team players that think team first, and I praise the guys on the extra training we did two days ago.”

Hallgrímsson says these are players who may not be satisfied with the playing time they have received but are not outwardly taking out their frustrations on others. He says it was an honour and a privilege to work with them.

“When we came I was told, even from the people in charge, that this was a disjointed squad,” he said. “There were two or three groups of players — foreign players, Jamaica-born players — and they could not work together. I hear no one talk about this today. I heard a lot about this player and [that] player never doing their best for Jamaica [but] I don’t hear this today. Being professional in camp is something that has improved, and I give a lot of credit to the players.”

Hallgrímsson says he has left enough data for the JFF and its next head coach, should they find it useful.

“It’s tactical data, profile on players, so the next coach will not need to start from zero,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of work for him [next coach]; whether he likes it and wants to use it or not, that’s his decision but it’s there already given to the JFF — programmes, checklists, et cetera. So we’re leaving, for sure, a much more positive environment than when we came — and that’s down to the players.”

Hallgrímsson also said the JFF staff has become more professional during his time.

“Let’s say the fitness coach — we’ve taken highly professional fitness coaches to help Lamar [Morgan, physical trainer] improve,” he said. “We have taken a world-class analyst to help Kyle [Chin, JFF’s video analyst] to grow.”

Hallgrímsson also mentioned Darren Glenister, Altimont Butler, and Ricardo Gardner as other personnel added to the technical set-up who have assisted in the growth of the existing personnel.

“I just want to leave it this way because this is an important project for me,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time, given a lot of time and work and love to this project, and I’d really love to see it continue and grow.”

Hallgrímsson, whose contract would have ended with Jamaica’s 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign, oversaw 27 matches since his appointment in September 2022. In that time he has won 10, drawn seven, and lost 10. He has also called up 84 players for international duty. This was his third job as a head coach, having guided Iceland to the World Cup in 2018, and then managing Qatari club Al-Arabi between 2018 and 2021.

The JFF says its technical committee, “will now begin the search for his replacement as the Concacaf Nations League and the FIFA World Cup are imminent”.