The day Bob marley played football at National Stadium

We all know that Bob loved playing football during his spare time. When he wasn’t playing his guitar, he would often play soccer with his friends or participating in a casual, friendly game with teams of journalists, musicians, official football teams (among them Nantes and Haiti)

His favourite team was Brazil, his favourite players were Pele and Ossie Ardiles.
This is a little story as told me by Mr Carl Brown (Carl Brown has been associated with Jamaica’s football for the better part of 35 years. He first made his national mark with Trench Town Comprehensive High School when they won the Walker Cup in 1969. He represented an all-conquering Boys Town for many years and played for Jamaica from 1970 to 1980. He took the Jamaica national team to third place in the Gold Cup in 1993).

Carl Brown: “Marco, I actually knew Bob from a very young age as he lived on First street and I lived on Fourth Street in Trench Town. Boys Town is just across the street from 1st street so that was where Bob played football very often.

I remember that Bob would play at Boys’ Town from eight in the morning right back to three o’clock.
Playing for Boys Town is the wish of every young boy growing up in Trench Town.
To tell you the truth, I couldn’t figure out which Bob loved more, music or football. The occasion I spoke about in 1971 was a night he presented to Boys Town football team a set of gears for us to use in a game we had that night. We allowed him to fulfil on of his greatest wish by playing him in the game and he was invited to play with the team in the National Stadium.
“He was so excited,” says Carl, “I have never seen him look happier (Bob’s close friend was Boys’ Town and national football star Alan “Skill” Cole). Bob was a outside right and very fast one too