Luton defender targets Gold Cup success with Jamaica

Town defender Amari’i Bell has set his sights on a first ever Gold Cup win for Jamaica when the competition starts later this month.

The 29-year-old has been named in the Reggae Boyz squad for their friendly matches with Qatar and Jordan that are being staged out in Austria ahead of the competition starting.

Jamaica, who reached the final back in 2015 and 2017, take on the recent World Cup hosts Qatar later today, before going up against Jordan, ranked 84th by FIFA on Monday, both games being staged at the Wiener Neustadt Ergo Arena.

They then fly out to America to face the USA in their opening Group A encounter on Sunday, June 25, the game taking place at the Soldier Field in Chicago.

From there, Jamaica will travel to City Park, St Louis as they go up against Trinidad and Tobago on June 28 and then face one of the yet to be decided preliminary match winners on July 2.

Ahead of the tournament, on being back with the squad, which contains former Swansea defender Joel Latibeaudiere, who has been linked with a move to Kenilworth Road, Bell, who has won nine caps for his country, told JFF Live: “It feels great, after a tiring season with my club, it feels good to have new objective now, winning the Gold Cup.

"It’s good to link up with everybody again and some of the boys that are here, I've played against them.

"I didn't know them personally, but I’ve known them in that sense, so it's good to just see each other’s qualities in person as well.”

Bell was involved two years ago when Jamaica got through the group stages, before losing to eventual winners USA in the quarter-finals.

He started the wins over Suriname and Guadeloupe, also coming on in the 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica, but didn’t feature in the last eight match.,

The wingback continued: “It was a great experience the last Gold Cup, but this one I want to play more and go on to do bigger things which is something that we all want to do.

"We don't want to feel that same disappointment previously, so we're going to do everything we can to make sure we go all the way.”

Bell linked up with the rest of his squad following a stunning season at Kenilworth Road in which he played 51 times for the Hatters, as they reached the Premier League after a play-off final penalty shootout win over Coventry City.

That saw the former Blackburn defender able to celebrate with the Jamaican flag at Wembley, which was something he had always intended to do, adding: “It was amazing, we had the disappointment last season, losing in the semi-finals, but we wanted to go one better.

"We didn't want to feel the same disappointment we did last season, so we used that experience, plus adding some new additions to the squad to make us even better and we just fought to the end.

"It was something that I thought about before it happened (wearing the Jamaican flag), if we get to that position, I want to show that I’m Jamaican and I’m proud.

"It was amazing to experience that and to even get some photos for the memory, it was great.”