Colorado Rapids striker Omar Cummings may have impressed Aston Villa during his short stint training with the club, but visa issues have cut short his Premier League experience.
Rapids head coach Gary Smith told MLSsoccer.com late Monday night that he has been informed his Jamaican forward would be returning to the US next week after the EPL side failed to get the necessary work permit in place. The news comes the same day as a BBC report said how impressed Villa manager Gérard Houllier was with the 28-year-old striker.
Jamaica’s national team, for whom Cummings has been a regular, dropped from 58th to 59th in the January FIFA rankings despite winning the 2010 Caribbean Cup in December. As such, the team’s two-year average ranking dropped from 71st to 72nd place among all national teams, therefore Cummings does not automatically qualify for a UK work permit.
According to the English FA, one of the conditions a player must meet to qualify for an immediate work permit is that his national team must be at or higher than 70th place in the FIFA rankings when averaged over the two years preceding the date of the application.
“The experience with Aston Villa is one that I'll remember for a long time,” Cummings told ColoradoRapids.com on Monday. “I didn't get on the pitch but it was a pleasure to meet the guys and to play with them, and to get a little insight into life in the English Premier League.”
While the news is disappointing to Cummings, the Jamaican should take heart in the fact that the EPL club would only have looked into getting him a work permit if they meant to take him on loan. He had been training with Villa since the end of December.
Despite reports that he had picked up an injury in training, Cummings had told Smith that nothing had prevented him from training as hard as possible.
“All he said was that he had a bit of a tight hamstring,” Smith said. “He was fine, everything was good and this had been a fantastic experience for him.”
Smith will be breathing a sigh of relief that his player will be back for the club’s March 19 opener against Portland. In fact, Smith said he is expecting Cummings back next week along with most of his players as the Rapids report back to preseason training on Jan. 24.
Four Colorado players – Marvell Wynne, Jeff Larentowicz, Anthony Wallace and Matt Pickens – are currently in training camp with the US national team in Southern California and are therefore not scheduled to be reporting back until next month.
