Coach Burton answers the call to serve

One year ago, former Jamaica international Deon Burton accepted a dream offer to be assistant coach to the senior women’s football squad, a role he says is in keeping with his desire to be part of the technical team for the country he helped take to a historic FIFA World Cup berth.

Burton, who turned 49 while in Trinidad and Tobago for Jamaica’s friendly international against the twin island republic, is part of the team charged with ensuring that the Reggae Girlz continue to chart their own history as they look to a third appearance at the FIFA showpiece.

The Reading-born Burton has represented several clubs in the United Kingdom and admits that being on the field of play brings an incredible feeling, but says being able to help players become better gives him joy:

“I’ve been lucky enough or unlucky enough, depending on how you look at it, to be able to travel around England and always know that I have a place to stay in most cities in England because I’ve played in most of them. Nothing can compare to being a player but this is the closest to it. So I am happy and I’m glad that I could carry on and give back everything I’ve learned on the pitch. I can give back now to the next generation to hopefully follow in my footsteps and even be better and do better than what I actually did. I am really happy to be coaching now. I love being on the grass. I can just about still take part in demonstrations even though I am 49. I’m not getting any younger but, as long as I can keep helping out, I’m blessed.”

Burton has coached teams in England but says answering the call to be on the Reggae Girlz coaching staff was an easy decision.

“I’ve been coaching now for over 10 years, so I’m well versed on the other side of the line, as they say. I’ve got all my badges and I’ve always left the door open to help out wherever I could, whether it’s the Reggae Boyz or the Reggae Girlz or even the younger generation. I’ve always told people in the federation that I was here. So, once I got the call from coach (Hubert) Busby (Reggae Girlz head coach) to join his backroom staff, I jumped at the opportunity and I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity that he has given me, and I hope that I can just help get the Girlz to a third World Cup.”

The Jamaicans qualified for their debut appearance at the 2019 World Cup held in France. They then qualified for consecutive world competition by qualifying for the 2023 edition and getting to the round of 16 in the tournament held in Australia and New Zealand.

The man who helped the Reggae Boyz qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup is confident that he will be able to get the women to Brazil in 2027.

“Obviously the experience of doing what they’ve done. They’ve been to two World Cups, I was only lucky enough to go to one, so they come better than me in that way, so they’re more experienced than me in that side of things.

“But, for the Girlz that don’t know or haven’t been, I can just try to help them where they need the help to try and get focussed to see out any challenges that might come up leading into any game, and hopefully they can experience what I have experienced and what the other ladies have experienced.”

It’s his first stint as a national coach but Burton admits he has ambitions to some day being in charge of his own backroom staff:

“I am very passionate and, obviously, I was lucky enough to play at the highest level and I’m no different in my coaching career. Obviously, everything takes a process and when I’m ready and when the opportunity comes, whether it be club level or international level, one day in the future to be leader, a manager, I know that I will be able to grab it with both hands and hopefully do as good as a job as I did playing.”

Burton, who ended his playing career in 2009, has 13 goals in 62 caps for Jamaica and joined West Bromwich Albion in 2018 as a youth coach before being promoted two years later to be head coach of the under-21 team and taking them to the Premier League Cup title in the 2022 season.