DRAX HALL, St James — There were two Gerald Neils in Sunday’s Red Stripe Premier League game between Mount Pleasant Football Academy and Harbour View Football Club at Drax Hall — one on each match card.

Gerald Neil Senior is the equipment manager for the home team, the other, his first son, an unused substitute on the Harbour View team.

As per tradition, they share the same alias “Kunta Kinte”, and the 22-year-old knows he has big boots to fill if he is to reach the levels his father did at the local stage while playing on several championship teams at Arnett Gardens. The senior Neil also played for Jamaica.

There was no mistaking the pride in the elder Gerald Neil as he met up with his son following the game, won by Harbour View 2-1, and detailed for the Jamaica Observer the similar path they had taken so far.

“He was born in Kingston but raised in St Elizabeth,” the father said, before adding that his son had played daCosta Cup football for Black River High, the same place he started his career before moving to Kingston where he played Manning Cup football.

The younger Neil, who is also a defender who can play both at right fullback and centre half, started playing club football for Black Stars in the St Elizabeth Football Association League, switching to Frasziers Whip FC in St Catherine before making the move to Harbour View this preseason, where he hopes he will get a chance to show that he got more from his father than just his name.

“We talk a lot,” young Neil told the Observer. “My father has a lot to share and has taught me a lot, and he also inspires me to do my best every time.”