Gordon accepts diminished MBU role in bid for another JPL title
ST JAMES, Jamaica — Owayne Gordon can hear the clock ticking and knows his time in the Jamaica Premier League is approaching an end, but he wants one more season in the hope of taking Montego Bay United back to the top.
Gordon, who will be 34 years old in October, has experienced the highs and the lows of the Premier League.
He lifted the title with the St James-based club in the 2015-16 season.
He left the club for a spell, only returning to the team a couple of seasons ago. During the last campaign in which he captained the team for most of the way, he contributed eight goals.
There were extended discussions between him and the club management at the end of the season.
Despite having to give up the captain’s armband and his favourite number 10 shirt and accepting that he would not be starting most games, he says there is still a passion for the game, perhaps not roaring fire but red hot none the less.
When asked by the Jamaica Observer what he expects his contributions to be, “Turtleman”, as he is popularly called, said: “It will be the same as it always has been. I always give the team and the players my best, and I will continue to do that until the last day here.”
Montego Bay finished fourth in the league last season, their best placing in almost a decade. He said that at the end of the campaign, in which his minutes on the pitch had diminished, there was a conversation with the club leadership.
He had articulated that one of his wishes is for his Premier League career to end where it started — at Montego Bay.
“We reached a point where we were talking about, you know, we’re gonna actually part ways and the club moving forward. But, you know, after a lot of talking and back and forth with the club, we decided that we’re gonna continue…at the end, we got to a decision that I would stay,” he explained.
But could he walk away after this season?
Gordon, who is regarded as one of the fittest players in the squad, said: “I am not sure yet, but I could say pretty much after this season, if I still feel good, I will continue. If not, it’s pretty much the last season and I don’t want to stay around for too long.”
