Menu

Moves on Hope Road

Photographer John Temones traveled to Kingston in September to shoot the Jamaica Football Federation kit in collaboration with the Bob Marley Foundation — and found a country quietly making its case for soccer.

BY Robert Cordero

On a September afternoon in Kingston, Jamaica, the humidity was thick and still. Hope Road climbs up out of the city. At number 56, behind the gates, the house Bob Marley once lived in that’s now a museum still stands. In the parking lot out back, where he used to play, a ball moves between the feet of young people who never saw him alive.
 
In Jamaica, track and field owns the spotlight in sports — Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah are national icons. Even Kingston’s National Stadium, which hosts soccer tournaments, puts its sprinters on pedestals, with statues to prove it.
 
But soccer has deep roots in Jamaica, too. Back in the 1970s and early ’80s, figures like Allan ‘Skill’ Cole helped weave the sport into reggae culture and the rhythms of daily Jamaican life. Cole, Marley’s close friend, organized the legend’s pickup games.
 
In a video that PLAYERS taped in September, you can see Cole at 74, a few days before he passed away last year.
 
For photographer John Temones, who was there that day, taking the video and shooting the team at the Marley house, the moment carried weight. “It felt really special, almost celebratory,” he said. “Like people were there honoring him, his legacy, his love of the sport.”
 
Still, soccer never took off in the country the way track and field did. “I think we view success as going to the World Cup, and we’ve not had that since 1998,” said Mason Holgate, a player on the Jamaican national team. “But with this squad, it’s got a positive feel about it, and it might be the first time in 26 years that we get to the World Cup, and that’s going to bring a whole generation of people to see the sport and hopefully get them into football.”
 
The chance had been real. But in the intercontinental playoff this past March, Jamaica fell 1-0 to DR Congo on a goal in the 100th minute. In the end, they just narrowly missed qualifying. 
 
For Kaheim Dixon, Holgate’s teammate, a World Cup berth isn’t a prerequisite for impact. “I know this is the sport that can change a community,” he said. That belief is stitched into the Jamaican Football Federation’s kit, designed by Adidas in collaboration with the Bob Marley Foundation.
 
It declares Jamaica a contender, a world-stage player, World Cup berth or not. “This kit means everything to me,” Dixon says. “I’ll die for this kit. I’ll go to war for this kit.”
 
By late afternoon at the shoot, the kids had gathered. They moved fast in the heat, the ball passing between them. “You kind of see this generational thing happening,” Temones said. “An immediate connection, two generations, through soccer.”
 
Beyond the pitch, Emprezz Golding, a local TV and radio host, sees soccer as a broader opportunity for young Jamaicans to build careers, and not only in sports but also in many other disciplines. “We need to put a special focus on football,” said Golding. “It is a pathway to degrees, to scholarships — it’s just so much.” She believes that like track and field, soccer can give Jamaican youth a bright future, too.
 
By dusk, the Jamaican national team players left. The kids stayed. And the ball kept moving in the parking lot where Marley used to play.
 
Words by: @rob.cord
Talent: @kaheimdixon_.13, @MasonHolgate, Allan ‘Skill’ Cole
Photography: John Temones 
Fashion @adidas
EIC @vladimirrestoinroitfeld
Fashion Director @carineroitfeld
Creative Director @ricardogomesinst
Editorial Director @rob_cord_
Senior Editor @genevieve.g.walker 
Fashion Editor @sofia.mottaa
Digital Director @scovvv
Associate Editor @kat.harron
Art Director @guillaumesbalchiero