From Caribbean News Now

The Caribbean Islands are home to many of the greatest English footballers to ever exist. From legends such as Andy Cole and John Barnes to Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge, all of them are known to have Caribbean roots. As a former English colony, Jamaica was home of popular sports such as rugby, tennis and evidently, football and thus many English teams, past or present, can trace their origin back to the Caribbean.

So let’s have a look at the top four English-Caribbean past and present players and one of them might even be part of your favourites!

1. Andrew Alexander Cole

Cole’s father, Lincoln, emigrated to the UK from Jamaica in 1957 and worked as a coal miner in Gedling, Nottinghamshire, from 1965 to 1987. Cole started his career at Arsenal as a youth player and made his only league appearance for Arsenal when he was 19 years old, as a substitute against Sheffield United. The following season, Cole was loaned to Fulham in the third division, where he scored 3 goals in 13 matches. After a pretty successful season at Newcastle, where he scored 68 goals in 84 matches, giving him a strike rate of 81%, Cole was sold to Manchester United for a deal worth 7 million in 1975. He is most notably remembered for his time in the Premier League, with Man Utd, where he spent six years of his career. While he was only capped by England 15 times, ‘Cole the Goal’ went on to become the third highest goal scorer in the history of the Premier League.

1. John Barnes

Being the son of two local personalities, everyone in the Caribbean knows that John Barnes’ soul lies in Jamaica. Based on a quite personal interview with This is Anfield, he mentioned his father served as a colonel in Jamaica. Barnes was noticed by Watford first and made his debut at 17 as a sub on 5th September 1981. He left Watford on 9th June 1987 to join Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool. During his playing career, Barnes was named the PFA Players’ Player of the Year once (in 1987–88) and the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year twice (in 1987–88 and 1989–90). Barnes was 12 when he left for England where he was named Liverpool’s best player of all time on two separate occasions. He retired in 1999 but not before representing England 79 times.

1. Sol Campbell

Sulzeer Jeremiah Campbell was born in East London to Jamaican parents on the 18th of September 1974. He began his career with Tottenham Hotspur in December 1992 and spent nine years at Spurs, scoring 10 goals in 255 appearances, and captaining the team to victory in the 1999 Football League Cup Final against Leicester City. In 2001, he joined Tottenham’s North London rivals: Arsenal. He became deeply unpopular with the Spurs fans as it was a free transfer. In his five years and 195 appearances at Arsenal, he won two Premier League winners medals and two FA Cup winners medals. He scored Arsenal’s only goal in their 2–1 defeat to Barcelona in the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final. He was the only player in 2006 to have represented England in six major tournaments including the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups.

1. Raheem Sterling

Sterling is well on his way to becoming the best footballer to come out of the Caribbean. Born in Jamaica, Sterling moved to London at the age of five and began his career at Queens Park Rangers before signing for Liverpool in 2010. In July 2015, following a lengthy dispute over a new contract, he was signed by Manchester City in a transfer potentially worth £49 million, the highest transfer fee ever paid for an English player. He then went on to help Manchester City win the Premier League in 2018. In a recent interview with Lee Sharpe, he mentions that: “Sterling is capable of becoming one of the best in the world”. Only 23 years old, he already has 46 caps for England and is looking like a very promising player.

For more on this story go to: https://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/2019/05/18/top-five-football-player-with-caribbean-roots-who-have-made-it-to-the-premier-league/