With the Reggae Girlz breaking into the top 40 of the FIFA rankings to end the year, Assistant Coach Xavier Gilbert is hoping that the team will receive more support and attention as they seek to qualify for the Women’s World Cup in 2027.

The national senior women’s team will enter 2026 as the 39th best nation in the world governing body’s final rankings of 2025. It’s the country’s highest ranking since 2023 when they soared to 37 following their exploits at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand where they historically qualified for the round of 16.

The Jamaican women ended the year on a high after demolishing Dominica 18-0 in their opening group game of World Cup qualifying last month. They also ended the year with consecutive wins after thumping Trinidad and Tobago 4-1 in an international friendly in October.

Gilbert says the high-performing Girlz deserve more support to help overcome their various challenges.

“We can [only] do what we can do, we have to control what we can control,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “Hopefully this will motivate and spark and rekindle some of the feeling that we had in 2019 and 2023 when we qualified for the World Cup and garner some support that we really need.

“It’s tough and it’s financially challenging to bring in all the players for different camps and to ensure they’re comfortable. So it’s really a stretch, and we hope that this will inspire corporate Jamaica to come on board and lend their support to the girls.”

Gilbert says the rise in rankings provides a huge boost to their recruitment efforts.

“It brings confidence to our programme, to the team, and for some persons who want to join up with the squad once they see that we’re moving in the upward trajectory,” he said. “That, too, will serve as a motivation for them to join up, switch allegiance from their country that we want to help to boost the squad.”

Despite the victorious ending, 2025 came with several losses against top-ranked opponents as they suffered consecutive 4-0 defeats to Mexico in April, a 4-0 defeat to USA on June 3, and a 7-0 hammering from England on June 29.

However, Gilbert says those results will make the team stronger in the future.

“In this region we don’t get those tougher positions on a regular basis, so we were looking at the bigger picture and exposing the younger players to that sort of competition,” he said.

“When we get later down, and even in the World Cup when we face these big and tougher positions, they are already aware of what to expect and dealing with situations and circumstances. So it was part of the learning curve for those younger players, and we’re glad we were happy to expose them to that level of competition.”

The Reggae Girlz return to action in March for their second World Cup qualifier against Nicaragua before April meetings with Antigua and Barbuda and Guyana.

Though three months away, Gilbert says the technical staff will be working hard to ensure they’re fully prepared.

“There’s not much we can do,” he said. “Most of the players are professionals and they’re in their environment playing. But we continue to meet, discuss strategies and tactics, look at players who are in form, who we think will suit what we want to achieve for every window and every game, and that’s what we have been doing over the last year and a half.

“Continue to meet and discuss, track those players, track their data, minutes they played, injuries, recovering from injury, having dialogue with them, and, of course, monitor the college players who missed out on the last [occasion]. Of course, our strength and conditioning and medical department will set up something for them. So all of those things we continue to monitor and continue to do to ensure that we have the best set of players to represent Jamaica on every window.”

Reggae Girlz Assistant Coach Xavier Gilbert.

The Reggae Girlz starting 11 take a team photo ahead of their Concacaf World Cup qualifier against Dominica at the Daren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia on November 29, 2025. (Photo: JFF)