On Thursday June 14, the 21st staging of the FIFA World Cup will kicked off with an impressive win for the tournament’s host country, Russia with a 5-0 drubbing of Saudi Arabia.
Jamaicans absolutely love the game of football and everyone with a television during World Cup usually has it stuck on arguably the greatest entertainment spectacle the world has ever seen.
It is no surprise that members of the Jamaican Music Fraternity acknowledge their passion for the sport, such as Reggae Singer Lutan Fyah who has a decorated past with the sport and insight that digs deeper than surface level.
At the Manning Cup Level, he represented St. Andrew Technical High School (STATHS), while graduating to the National Premier League, where he represented top flight teams such as Portmore United and Constant Spring Football Club.
“A mi used to wear the number 10 fi STATHS… Mi play against all the big footballer dem at the time: Ali Rose, Edsel Scott, Trevor Spence and Bibi Gardner… all a dem. Every footballer a mi friend,” he said in an interview.
This year’s World Cup the veteran musician is all for Senegal.
“Brazil used to be mi team, but mi a go wid Senegal. Mi a Bobo Shanti and wi haffi push the African team dem to win a World Cup,”
In 2002 Senegal turned many heads by reaching the quarter finals. This would be their third year appearing in the World Cup Finals. The Reggae Singer said he knows several of the team’s player as they are fixture in the English Premier League.
“Senegal has some players who know how to compete like Sadio Mane from Liverpool, (Diafra) Sakho and the midfielder (Mohamed) Diamé from West Ham. And if Brazil and Senegal meet, mi haffi bring Senegal,” he said. “Is a place weh mi go regular. In fact, mi and Norris Man keep a stage show there every December in Dakar called Afro Diaspora Festival; this year will be the third year.”
On June 19 Sengal is set to kick-start their campaign against Poland, while on June 24 they will play Japan and on June 28 they will compete their group H stage of matches by lining up against Colombia.
As a schoolboy Anthony Martin also known as “Lutan Fyah” played for STATHS from 1995-1997. He further wore the Hazard United jersey, which is now known as Portmore United in 1997. At Constant Spring Football Club he had two stints from 1999-2001 and 2000- 2001 before he stopped playing football.
“Mi never make it to ’98 World Cup when Jamaica qualified and football never have much to offer… so mi turn up a Buju Banton place and him hear mi and said, ‘Don’t leave.’ He was the first one who voiced me. The song was All The Atrocity and the year was 1998. Buju a mi boss,” he said.
Lutan Fyah will be touring the continent of Africa to places like Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania as early as September 2018.