‘Football chose me’ | Rick Gordon of Old Harbour Bay tells remarkable story of journey to Antigua

As a teenager he was a special 400m runner and football player, representing his alma mater Old Harbour High in both disciplines. After completing his secondary education, he became star struck by the glitzy lights of party life and beautiful young women, as he turned his back on a dream of competing inside some of the world’s most glamorous stadia around the globe.

However, in the summer of 2016, a then 20-year-old Gordon found himself knocking on death’s bed after a violent altercation with one of his friends left him hospitalised for one month. The situation initially was seen as a bad omen, but looking back now it was a blessing in disguise.

“On my death bed I got a call to come to Antigua to come and play football,” said the 26-year-old who grew up in a section of Old Harbour Bay known as Settlement.

It was an opportunity that came out of the blue, one that he never even thought of. But it presented a chance to dream again.

Based on his condition – a stab to the neck – Gordon said he had to delay taking up the offer until November. Shortly afterwards he met Florisca Gordon, now his wife and whom he describes as the “biggest thing in my life to have happened to me”.

With the support of his partner, Gordon stated “I end up to start fall in love with football” all over again.

Today, Gordon is a five-season veteran in the semi-professional Antigua and Barbuda Football Association League. He’s settled with a beautiful family and as centre forward is a marked man on the pitch.

Recently, Gordon scored four goals in five matches to help Grenades FC to win the ABFA National Cup, a victory he describes as most satisfying as they were the underdogs of the knockout tournament.

“Everybody wanted us to lose, so we have to keep fighting,” he said.

It has been quite a journey for Gordon in the twin-island nation of 98,000 inhabitants.

As is the case with a lot of professional athletes, it took him some time to adapt to life in the 131 FIFA-ranked nation where the football there is still classified as semi-professional, meaning it is not a full time job for many of its players, who had to juggle playing the game with traditional nine-to-five work-life.

“When I got here the journey was hard for me. I had to play different positions,” the six-foot, one-inch striker told Old Harbour News, while noting the fierce competition that exists amongst players from other Caribbean islands, Central and South America.

During the Covid-19 pandemic he had to improvise a lot too, working as a chauffeur at a hotel and the breaks was put on football and just about everything else.

It was uncharted territory for the Old Harbour Bay native, as someone who did not experience playing top flight football in Jamaica. Unsurprisingly too he travelled much throughout the football landscape, rendering his footballing services at Triumph FC, Old Road, Young Lion, SAP FC before joining his current club.

Gordon’s said his best season actually came playing for SAP FC, even though he could not prevent them from being relegated, having joined them with four games left in the competition. He played four games, scored four goals and had two assists, before extending his service to remain with the club. It was the right decision, as he helped them gain immediate promotion to the premier league, scoring eight goals in 10 games.

With four goals from the KO tournament already to his name, Gordon is working towards making this season his best yet. And the fact that he can now focus fully on playing football full-time makes such aspiration a real possibility. To help achieve this further support will likely come from good friends Quinton Griffiths, Antigua national captain and Peter Byers, national striker, among others who have become part of his supporting cast.

Living in Antigua

With a good job and a settled family and home, Gordon says he’s enjoying life on the land of 365 beaches.

Living in Antigua is “very calm” and that’s what “got me” to stay, he tells me, before adding: “You can be here and nobody knows you are here.”

His current focus is to also represent the Antiguan national team and is in the process of becoming a naturalised citizen. “I would play for Antigua because I live here and this is my daughter’s birth country,” he explains before indicating that he has had interest from local clubs in Jamaica and elsewhere.

At the age of 26 Gordon is entering his prime as a professional football player and habours big dreams of playing overseas in a full-fledged professional league in the United States of America or even Europe. But wherever the opportunity arises he’s willing to give it a go, once he’s satisfied with the deal presented. The prospects are looking good he tells me with a few overseas scouts flying to Antigua to watch him play.

“At this moment I think my coach likes me because I am determined and determined to work,” he said of what he believes to be his strongest attributes. “Other coaches I have worked with always like the fact that I always want to win and always want to score.”

This desire to win is further fuelled by bigger ambitions to take care of his family, and reward his parents for the invaluable role they played in his life. This intangible zeal was self-evident in our near one hour long conversation over the telephone about his unique and remarkable journey to where he has reached so far both on a personal and professional level. It’s a story he hopes will inspire youth from particularly Old Harbour Bay and from a broader sphere in Jamaica.

“Old Harbour Bay is a very nice community other than the violence. For me I look up to players like Dane Kelly who left Old Harbour and went to Tivoli to pursue his dream. Now he is USL top goalscorer. For me I would want for every football player, every cricketer, every basketball player from Od Harbour Bay to take on their dreams and go for it. Believe in themselves, believe in God and go for their dreams. Once you help yourself God will help you,” he told Old Harbour News.

“It’s being rough for me. But I still hold my composure. I still do what I had to do because I remember coming to Antigua doing football, and I still had to find a job working as a security guard, standing up for hours and then leave for training. Sometimes I can’t even make it to see my family because when I come home I have to go straight to bed.”

It has been quite a remarkable turnaround for Gordon whose life went from misfortune to fortunate.

At age six his football talent was quite visible. It was the norm though to see such talents emerge from Old Harbour Bay, renown for producing some great sporting talents – the late Olympian Neville Myton and Reggae Boy and 1998 World Cup player Linval Dixon readily comes to mind.

By age 10 he was representing Old Harbour Primary under the early guidance of coach Dean Fearon.

He would then have Linval Dixon as his coach at Old Harbour High where he represented them at the under-16 level in football. He was also a competent quarter-miler and 400m hurdler in high school. He got as far was to the semi-finals in his final year at Champs – the pre-eminent high school athletics championships in Jamaica – but his hopes of contending for a medal were dash after sustaining a groin injury in the 400m semi-final.

His coach was upset with him he recalled and from then “I lost love for the game at that age”. He threw in the towel on becoming a professional athlete but little did he knew that life will come full circle on him.

“I choose track and field but football chose me,” he said. “I never choose football, I choose track and field, so I end up doing track and field through high school and it helped me a lot.”

Rather than continue his passion for sport, Gordon ventured into the arena of being a party promoter, quickly acquiring the moniker ‘Rick Cleanboss’, a name that can be attributed to his silky smooth eye-poppin fashion styles. It was a seamless transition he said, because his siblings were already in the business rubbing shoulders with some of the most notable influencers in Old Harbour such as Conroy ‘Overdose’ Samuels and Paul ‘Gapz 7G’ Cordoza.

“I then lose interest in party and step aside,” he said, with his coming together with death the most telling signs that this wasn’t a field for him.

Now his ambitions are far greater, his journey a major success story of inspiration. Something that perhaps the entertainment world could have provided, but at what cost?

Having shunned the lights of the party, Gordon can no longer hide under the spotlights brought on by football in his quest for success.