Tennessee soccer’s Kameron Simmonds on making Jamaica’s World Cup roster, playing with legends

Kameron Simmonds’ dream of playing in a World Cup will come true in a couple of weeks.

The Tennessee soccer sophomore has made the Jamaican national team’s roster and will play alongside former UT star Khadija “Bunny” Shaw.

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup will take place July 20-Aug. 20 in Australia and New Zealand. Jamaica‘s first Group F game, which includes Brazil and Panama, will be against France on July 23 (6 a.m. ET, FOX) in Sydney.

Simmonds, who has always loved watching the game, is most excited about sharing the field with legends such as Brazil’s Marta and Debinha.

“To be able to share the pitch with them, I don’t even know that I can put into words,” Simmonds said. “That’s what I’m most excited about, honestly, those two game days, and just seeing them and seeing them play in person, against them. It’s just something that I’m so grateful and thankful and excited for.”

The Jamaica women’s national team’s struggle with funding

In the journey to her first World Cup, the 19-year-old also has been part of the team’s push for financial backing from the Jamaica Football Federation.

During the final camp before the roster was announced, the players posted a joint statement on social media expressing their collective disappointment in the JFF.

“We hope that by using our platforms to express the reality of our situation, our efforts will be reciprocated,” the statement said. “We hope there will be immediate and systematic change within our federation and those in charge of protecting the integrity of women’s football.”

Simmonds declined to elaborate: “The statement was really meant to say it all.”

The center of the issue is JFF’s lack of funding for the women’s national team, which has been defunded by the federation twice since 2008. The team was revived by Cedella Marley, the daughter of famed musician Bob Marley. Despite the team’s success in qualifying for two straight World Cups, the lack of federation money persists.

Houston Dash midfielder Havana Solaun’s mother, Sandra Phillips-Brower, started a crowdfunding campaign, aiming to raise $100,000 “to allow both staff and players to focus on the competition.” The Reggae Girlz Foundation is also running a campaign, and between the two nearly $94,000 has been raised.

Kameron Simmonds’ journey to the World Cup roster

Czech Republic defenders left Simmonds alone in the box.

Drew Spence set her up with the perfect pass, and Simmonds blasted a shot into the opposite corner. She scored her first goal with the senior national team at the Cup of Nations in February. Simmonds did it wearing the No. 11 of Shaw, who was with Manchester City and could not play in the tournament.

Simmonds was happy just to make the roster for the Cup of Nations, where Jamaica also faced Spain and Australia, knowing that the players picked were in serious contention for the World Cup roster.

“I felt like that was really kind of my moment to be able to prove that I can do this,” she said of the goal. “I was just happy that I was able to show that, because honestly, deep down I knew. But when it came to the moments where it really mattered, I felt like that was really, really important for my process of getting picked for this final team.”

Her camp last fall was her first time playing with Shaw, whose success at the international level had left Simmonds starstruck.

Shaw is one of the top strikers in the world and a significant reason Jamaica qualified for the previous two World Cups. At 26, she already is Jamaica’s all-time leading goal scorer in both men’s and women’s competition with 56 international goals.

During a camp before the World Cup roster was announced, Shaw would pull Simmonds aside, asking how she was doing.

“I was a little, not nervous, but obviously you want to hear from a player like that, who plays your position, so experienced,” Simmonds said. “So for her to just pull me and check on me was huge. That was kind of the moment where I was like, ‘Wow, this is really a teammate kind of dynamic.’ . . . Before, I was definitely just in awe.”

How Kameron Simmonds is fulfilling her father’s dream, too

Simmonds’ father and grandfather knew she was going to make the World Cup roster.

“There was no doubt in our mind,” they told her. Her father, Gregory, and grandfather, Patrick, both played for the senior national team, making Simmonds the third generation in her family to represent Jamaica.

Gregory played on the team that qualified for the 1998 World Cup, the only appearance by the men’s team. But he didn’t get to play. His parents were unwilling to let him drop out of college to play full time with the national team.

Now, 25 years later, he’ll make the trip to Australia to watch his daughter fulfill both of their dreams.

“It’s honestly everything,” Kameron Simmonds said. “I just want to make my parents proud, and to be able to do it in a way that he shares the same love for the game . . . and to be able to bond with him over this, that’s just made us so much closer. But to be able to fulfill my dream and his, there’s really nothing more in my life I feel like could fulfill that need of wanting to make him proud.”

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee soccer’s Kameron Simmonds on making Jamaica World Cup roster