This Reggae Boy happy to be closer to Jamaica and restart MLS career with Inter Miami
It isn’t exactly Danvers Pen, the humble farming village in east Jamaica where Inter Miami defender Alvas Powell grew up, but South Florida is as close as it gets to home in Major League Soccer.
It certainly is a lot more like home than Portland or Cincinnati, where Powell, 25, began his MLS career.
South Florida is home to 300,000 Jamaicans, making it the second-largest Jamaican community outside the island nation, behind only New York. There are hundreds of Jamaican-owned restaurants, bakeries, shops and businesses in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, so you are never far from a patty, a plate of ackee, jerk chicken or a bottle of Red Stripe.
The Broward County cities of Lauderhill, Miramar, Pembroke Pines and Plantation are largely Jamaican. In fact, Lauderhill’s nickname is “Jamaica Hill.” Any time Powell decides to head home for a visit, he can hop on one of 10 flights per day from Miami or Fort Lauderdale.
For those reasons and more, Powell said he is eager to put Cincinnati behind him and get on the field wearing Inter Miami’s black and pink uniform.
“I’ve been in Portland and moved to Cincinnati, where not many Jamaicans were there, so moving to Florida, there are lot more Jamaicans so I am pretty comfortable,” Powell said after Friday morning’s training session at Barry University. “I feel like home. It’s like an hour flight from Florida to Jamaica, so that’s good.”
He said he was been fully focused on preseason training, so he has not yet had a chance to meet many local Jamaicans or explore Jamaican restaurants, but he will in due time.
Powell, a right back, began his career with Portmore United in Jamaica before being sent on loan to Portland. He played for the Timbers from 2015 to 2018 and was a backbone of the defense during their 2015 MLS Cup title run.
He was acquired by FC Cincinnati in exchange for $250,000 in allocation money as that club was building for its inaugural MLS season in 2019. He played 13 games with 10 starts for Cincinnati, but never quite fit into their plans. The last game he played for the club was July 21, 2019.
Despite the struggles with his club team, Powell remained a mainstay on the Jamaican Reggae Boyz national team. He has made 35 appearances since 2012, including Gold Cups and World Cup qualifiers.
Powell said he is eager to re-establish himself as one of the top backs in MLS and feels Miami is the perfect fit.
“This is something good,” he said. “I was in Cincinnati and things were not going good for me, and I got recruited to come here and I’m happy to be part of this project. I want to take it to the next level.”
Although Powell grew up playing more of an English style of soccer in Jamaica, he said he feels comfortable in what will be a Latin American-style team under Uruguayan coach Diego Alonso. He said he’s happy staying back or pushing forward, whatever the coach asks of him.
“I fit in here,” he said. “In Portland, it was a learning process for me, and I learned a lot. Being in the cold north, I am used to the warm weather in Jamaica, so being in Portland, where it was cold all the time, raining all the time, I had to adjust to the climate. Coming here to Inter Miami reminds me of Jamaica with the nice weather. So far I am fitting in well.”
Inter Miami selected Powell second overall in the Expansion Draft. Sporting director Paul McDonough said Powell’s skill in back and his experience in MLS and with the Jamaican national team were key reasons they picked him. The fact that he will appeal to the large Jamaican population is a bonus.
“Bringing Alvas back, he’s a Jamaican international, and we really like his game, athletic, plays at right back so that was important for us,” McDonough said.
In one week with his new team, Powell says he notices many differences from his Cincinnati experience.
“The organization here is different from what I am used to,” he said. “Everybody is more loving, and everybody communicates with each other. So far, so good. It’s way different here. The staff is bigger. People are nicer. It’s way different from Cincinnati. Cincinnati is history. I put it behind me. They’re a good team, good fan base, but my focus is here in Inter Miami.”
Inter Miami will train in Port Saint Lucie for the next week, then move camp to Bradenton from Feb. 1 to Feb. 6, then return to Fort Lauderdale for a week of practice in the team’s new training facility, which is under construction. From there, the team will head to St. Petersburg for a week of training and two open-to-the-public preseason games, Feb. 15 vs Philadelphia Union and Feb. 22 against Tampa Bay Rowdies. Both games are at Al Lang Stadium and free of charge.
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 2:07 PM.