FORMER Reggae Girlz Head Coach Lorne Donaldson said he has turned down a number of interviews for overseas coaching jobs, claiming he plans to take a break from coaching at the international level.

The vastly experienced Donaldson recently guided the senior Reggae Girlz to a historic second-round appearance at the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia/New Zealand. However, his contract was not renewed by Jamaica Football Federation in September.

Donaldson told the Jamaica Observer he has been approached by a number of countries to possibly take up a coaching position, but said he has declined their requests to be interviewed.

“I have turned down interviews but I won’t say which countries. But yes, that has happened,” said Donaldson.

“The plan is just to sit back, but I don’t know what I want to do from here. But, I am still coaching because I am still in charge of my club with 6000 kids in Colorado in the United States and so I am coaching every day,” he said.

“Coaching is always a part of my life. There is a lot of stuff that happened recently — not talking about Jamaica — but I didn’t want to be involved right now because I just want to just chill and do what I want to do just for a little while,” explained Donaldson.

At this year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup, Donaldson took Jamaica to a historic round of 16 fnish after drawing with France and Brazil and defeating Panama in the group stage. The Reggae Girlz eventually bowed out following a 1-0 loss to Colombia at the knockout stage.

Donaldson, who served as assistant to Hue Menzies during the Girlz’ historic qualification to the 2019 World Cup in France, was in his second stint as coach.

He first took the head coach job after Menzies resigned at the end of 2019, and guided the team through the Concacaf Olympic early qualifying stage.

The 63-year-old Donaldson, who is a Kingston College (KC) old boy, shared that he will continue to impart his knowledge of the game to young footballers — whether locally or overseas — but for now he will be spending some time away from the international game.

“I am always involved with Jamaican football — whether it is [with] KC [or in another capacity] — but I will never say no… but there is a lot of coaching outside of Jamaica that I can be involved with but, like I have said, I just want to just enjoy my time now,” he said.

“I have done it for a long time but I just want to just sit back and just still coach and still develop players, but just take it easy for a little bit,” Donaldson stated.