Jamaica at the FIFA World Cup
This is a record of Jamaica's results at the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.
The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.[1]
Jamaica has qualified for the finals of the FIFA World Cup once with it happening in 1998 after they finished third in the final round of CONCACAF qualifying.[2][3] Although they beat Japan 2–1 in their third and final group game, two earlier defeats meant they failed to progress to the Round of 16.
Overview
| Qualification record | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D* | L | GF | GA | Squad | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | ||
 1930 |
Did not enter | Declined participation | |||||||||||||||
_crowned.svg.png.webp){kind=small} 1934 | |||||||||||||||||
.svg.png.webp){kind=small} 1938 | |||||||||||||||||
.svg.png.webp){kind=small} 1950 | |||||||||||||||||
.svg.png.webp){kind=small} 1954 | |||||||||||||||||
 1958 | |||||||||||||||||
 1962 | |||||||||||||||||
 1966 |
Did not qualify | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 21 | ||||||||||
 1970 |
4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 11 | |||||||||||
 1974 |
Withdrew | Withdrew | |||||||||||||||
 1978 |
Did not qualify | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||||
 1982 |
Did not enter | Declined participation | |||||||||||||||
| 1986 |
Withdrew | Withdrew | |||||||||||||||
 1990 |
Did not qualify | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | ||||||||||
 1994 |
8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 11 | |||||||||||
 1998 |
Group stage | 22nd | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 9 | Squad | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 24 | 15 | ||
  2002 |
Did not qualify | 16 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 14 | 18 | ||||||||||
| 2006 |
8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 11 | 6 | |||||||||||
 2010 |
8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 6 | |||||||||||
 2014 |
16 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 19 | |||||||||||
 2018 |
8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 21 | |||||||||||
 2022 |
14 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 22 | |||||||||||
.svg.png.webp){kind=small} 2026 |
To be determined | To be determined | |||||||||||||||
| Total | Group stage | 1/22 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 116 | 37 | 33 | 46 | 124 | 161 | |||
1998 FIFA World Cup
In 1996, the Jamaican Football Federation hired Brazilian René Simões to take charge of the team.[4] After comfortably getting through the second round,[5] they finish top of their group in the third round to qualify through to the hexagon where the top three qualified through to the finals. A slow start in the finals saw the national team winless from the first four games of the final round. But 1–0 wins against El Salvador, Canada and Costa Rica gave the national team some hope with Deon Burton scoring the winning goal in two of those matches. After a 0–0 draw against Mexico, Jamaica secured their qualification with a 2–2 draw against El Salvador to make their first (and to date only) appearance at a World Cup with the following day being declared a national holiday.[6]
Squad
Head coach: Renê Simões
| No. | Pos. | Player | Date of birth (age) | Caps | Club |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GK | Warren Barrett | 9 July 1970 (aged 27) | 128 |  Violet Kickers |
| 2 | DF | Stephen Malcolm | 2 May 1970 (aged 28) | 62 | Seba United |
| 3 | MF | Chris Dawes | 31 May 1974 (aged 24) | Galaxy | |
| 4 | DF | Linval Dixon | 14 September 1971 (aged 26) | 104 | Hazard |
| 5 | DF | Ian Goodison | 21 November 1972 (aged 25) | 55 | Olympic Gardens |
| 6 | MF | Fitzroy Simpson | 26 February 1970 (aged 28) | 23 | Portsmouth |
| 7 | MF | Peter Cargill | 2 March 1964 (aged 34) | 76 | Harbour View |
| 8 | FW | Marcus Gayle | 27 September 1970 (aged 27) | 5 | Wimbledon |
| 9 | FW | Andy Williams | 23 September 1977 (aged 20) | 25 | Columbus Crew |
| 10 | FW | Walter Boyd | 1 January 1972 (aged 26) | 57 | Arnett Gardens |
| 11 | MF | Theodore Whitmore | 5 August 1972 (aged 25) | 76 | Seba United |
| 12 | DF | Dean Sewell | 13 April 1972 (aged 26) | 4 | Constant Spring |
| 13 | GK | Aaron Lawrence | 11 August 1970 (aged 27) | 17 | Reno |
| 14 | GK | Donovan Ricketts | 7 June 1977 (aged 21) | 0 | Wadadah |
| 15 | DF | Ricardo Gardner | 25 September 1978 (aged 19) | 34 | Harbour View |
| 16 | MF | Robbie Earle | 27 January 1965 (aged 33) | 8 | Wimbledon |
| 17 | FW | Onandi Lowe | 2 December 1973 (aged 24) | 30 | Harbour View |
| 18 | FW | Deon Burton | 25 October 1976 (aged 21) | 18 | Derby County |
| 19 | DF | Frank Sinclair | 3 December 1971 (aged 26) | 5 | Chelsea |
| 20 | MF | Darryl Powell | 15 November 1971 (aged 26) | 2 | Derby County |
| 21 | DF | Durrant Brown | 8 July 1964 (aged 33) | 125 | Wadadah |
| 22 | FW | Paul Hall | 3 July 1972 (aged 25) | 23 | Portsmouth |
Group H table
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Argentina |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | +7 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 |  Croatia |
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 6 | |
| 3 | Jamaica |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 9 | −6 | 3 | |
| 4 | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Japan |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | −3 | 0 |
Record players
Nine players have been fielded in all three of Jamaica's FIFA World Cup matches, making them record World Cup players for their country:
| Rank | Player | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walter Boyd | 3 |
| Deon Burton | 3 | |
| Robbie Earle | 3 | |
| Ricardo Gardner | 3 | |
| Ian Goodison | 3 | |
| Paul Hall | 3 | |
| Fitzroy Simpson | 3 | |
| Frank Sinclair | 3 | |
| Theodore Whitmore | 3 | |
Top goalscorers
The two goals scored by Theodore Whitmore during Jamaica's only World Cup win, their 2–1 over Japan, make him Jamaica's record scorer at World Cup tournaments.
| Rank | Player | Goals | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Theodore Whitmore | 2 | 1998 |
| 2 | Robbie Earle | 1 | 1998 |
See also
References
- 2006 FIFA World Cup TV Coverage Archived June 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (PDF), FIFA.com. Retrieved on June 6, 2007.
- "Remembering Jamaica at France '98: media darlings, history-makers and more than just the 'Reggae Boyz'". Retrieved 15 June 2018.
- "The unlikely journey of Jamaica to France 98". 6 July 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
- Tortello, Rebecca. "A fascination with football". Jamaica Glenaer. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
- "1998 FIFA World Cup France ™ Preliminaries". FIFA. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
- O'Callaghan, Eoin (15 June 2018). "World Cup 2018: How history-making Jamaica became more than just the 'Reggae Boyz' at France 1998". The Independent. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2019.