Reporter: Alex Orenczuk
•6/19/2026
NAPLES, Fla. - Every save Joshua Grant makes for FC Naples is part of a much bigger goal.
The 19-year-old goalkeeper is captain of Jamaica’s U-20 national team and has already earned a call-up to the country’s senior team. Grant hopes the experience will eventually lead him to the World Cup.
His connection to Jamaica begins with his family. Grant’s mother and grandmother were born there and raised him around the country’s culture.
“Playing with the colors that my mom and my grandmother were born with, you know, on the soil that they were born, it’s definitely an honor every time,” Grant said. “Having a sense of gratitude and just being super grateful.”
Grant said representing a country brings a different level of pressure and motivation than playing for a club.
“You’re fighting for your country, you’re fighting for your people, your family, your friends back home,” Grant said. “You have a sense of just passion.”
Jamaica did not qualify for this summer’s World Cup and has not appeared in the tournament since 1998. Grant believes the players currently coming through the country’s youth national team system can help change that during the next four-year cycle.
The goalkeeper said many of Jamaica’s U-20 players will be entering their prime by the time the next World Cup arrives in 2030.
“We want to play in the men’s World Cup in the next four years,” Grant said. “So we’re the future, and I’m trying to lead my troops.”
For now, Grant is continuing to develop with FC Naples while carrying the responsibility that comes with captaining his country’s next generation.
