THE Reggae Boyz are back!

Well. . . at least a watered-down version of the Caribbean football giants,

Next week, the Jamaican Ambassadors of America will touch down on the Island for a three-match tour against local opposition.

The team is comprised of former Jamaican national team players headed by Leonard (Chicken) Mason, who represented his country at the highest level in the 1970s.

"Basically the bottom line here is to promote goodwill between Jamaica and Bermuda," said Gordon Anglin, a Jamaican national who plays locally for Commercial B team PHC Raiders.

"This is an over-40s team of Jamaican players who have represented Jamaica at all levels over the years."

The visitors will begin their tour of Bermuda next Thursday, November 27, when they take on Raiders, provisionally, at Devonshire Recreation Club. They will then conduct a special practise session at Sandy's Middle School on Friday in which they will also donate stationary supplies and computers to the west end school.

Jamaican Ambassadors will then take on a Commercial Division select at Devonshire Rec later the same day before concluding their brief stopover with a match against Somerset Extros on Saturday, November 29, at Somerset Cricket Club.

"We have basically adopted Sandy's Middle School for the day," said Anglin, an eight-year veteran of the visiting team.

"We are going to run a training session for all the young football players in the school and provide them with tee-shirts and footballs.

"Sandy's just happens to be Clyde Best's former school so we figure it would be a good choice. We are also going to provide them with computers and some stationary pens and pencils."

Anglin said the tour will now be an annual event.

"We travel all over. We've travelled to St.Lucia, St.Croix, in Jamaica and the United States," he said. "So basically this is a goodwill team of Jamaican ambassadors. As you know Jamaicans sometimes get a lot of negative press ? we just want to shed a brighter light on what Jamaicans are capable of."