Icelandic head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson is enjoying his time as head coach of Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz.
The 55-year-old former professional footballer was appointed as the head man for Jamaica in September last year after a four-year stint at Qatari club Al-Arabi from 2018-2021.
Before that, Hallgrimsson was a member of the coaching staff of his native Iceland from 2013-2018.
He was initially appointed as assistant coach to Lars Lagerback before being promoted to joint-head coach after the 2014 World Cup.
Hallgrimsson and Lagerback oversaw the most successful period in the country’s football history including a quarter-final berth at Euro 2016. He officially took over as head coach when Lagerback left to coach Norway after Euro 2016.
“The experience has been good,” stated Hallgrimsson to Sportsmax.TV at the JFF’s official Adidas kit launch at their headquarters on Tuesday about his first few months coaching the Reggae Boyz.
“There are a lot of things I need to learn first before I can really change things. It takes time. You’ll never know everything but it’s better to do the work in the beginning than to slowly learn,” added Hallgrimsson.
He says his focus, as of late, has been to try to learn about Jamaica’s football culture.
“I’ve been doing this. The first two camps I had in January were to get to know the players and the ones that were recommended or played before,” he said.
“In February, I’ve been focusing on the domestic league and domestic players, trying to learn the football culture in Jamaica, watching training sessions, talking to coaches and owners. Maybe, in one week, I will need to start to watch the players playing abroad because it takes a lot of time to do as well,” he added.
When questioned about immediate plans for the Reggae Boyz, Hallgrimsson mentioned that the next few games will give him and his staff an opportunity to see as many players play as possible.
“We play in Trinidad and Tobago on the 11th and the 14th of March. That is good preparation and I think that match will feature players from the domestic league. Then we have the game in Mexico at the end of March and there, we will have the ability to bring in all the players that we want because that’s a FIFA window. We then have a game against Guatemala in early April where we can, hopefully, get some of the players in the US that were not in the Mexico squad.”
“The purpose of all this is to try give as many players as possible a chance to play so we can have the best squad possible in the Gold Cup this summer.”
The 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup is scheduled for June 24-July 16 in California.
The Reggae Boyz were beaten 0-1 by the USA in the quarter-finals at the 2021 edition.