Reggae Boyz legend Deon Burton said he is privileged to be asked to be of the Reggae Girlz coaching staff as they hunt an historic third-consecutive qualification to the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Burton joined up with the Jamaicans who are in France for an International Friendly on Friday, as they continued preparations for World Cup qualifiers, which start in 2025.

“I’m really privileged from the day that I got the call from Bugz (Hubert Busby). It’s not a short thing. This has been going on for few months, so we’ve been in dialogue for a long time,” Burton noted.

Burton, who turns 47 on match day, October 25, was a part of the first core of English-based players to join the Jamaican team in the 1990s en route to the country’s historic qualification to the 1998 FIFA Men’s World Cup in France.

As one of the assistant coaches, Burton has been tasked with assisting the strikers, a role tailor-made for the man who banged in four goals from five games as a then 19-year-old, as Jamaica closed in on qualifying for the World Cup in 1997. He was for that year named Jamaica’s Sportsman-of-the-Year.

Burton, who lives in England, represented Derby County, Portsmouth, Sheffield Wednesday, Brentford, Charlton, and Stokes, among others, during his playing career. He netted 25 goals from 125 games for Derby between 1997 and 2002, and another 24 for Sheffield between 2006-2009, totalling 148 goals from 632 games in a 20-year span.

Burton, now the head coach for West Bromwich Albion Under-23 team, has been scouting the English-based Jamaicans for Busby and his role will be critical for the future.

“I went to about three games just to start seeing, looking at the players and getting an idea of and a feel for it before we came into camp,” said Burton.

“And to say we’re playing France…Jamaica is one of the top teams. We wouldn’t have been asked to come and play France if they didn’t think that we had someone to give them or challenge them,” Burton pointed out.

“So, let’s not get it twisted that we’re a good team, and to see how far it’s come that the ladies are matching the men or exceeding the men because they’ve been to two World Cups and we only went to one so far,” he explained.