Mount Pleasant’s Campbell on two-week training stint with Charlton

Just a week after announcing their historic partnership with English Football League (EFL) League One club Charlton Athletic, Mount Pleasant are seeing some fruits from their labour with the announcement that Devonte Campbell has joined Charlton Athletic on a training stint.

Campbell, a Jamaica under-20 international, has joined the League One club for a period of two weeks where he will be training with the Charlton Athletic academy to gain international exposure.

Mount Pleasant's sporting director Paul Christie believes, however, that should Campbell impress during his stint in England, there is a strong possibility that his stay in England could prove to be permanent.

"Charlton Athletic understands and Mount Pleasant understands what we are trying to do here and yes, the possibilities are endless. It is very possible that you might see him in an English or European club jersey in the near future if he impresses in the sessions."

Campbell, who has been a student of the Mount Pleasant Academy since he was 14 years old, made his senior debut for the Jamaica Premier League club in 2021, before scoring his first goal against Molynes United in a 4-1 win.

Since then, Campbell has gone on to make five appearances for the Jamaica under-20 national team and received a senior call-up for the Reggae Boyz squad for an international friendly against Peru in 2021.

Christie explained that Campbell's training stint is a credit to the recent "Mountain to Valley" partnership signed by the two clubs. Christie said the partnership will not only be a benefit to the players on the field, but also for the development of the club's internal structure.

"It is a multi-faceted approach that the partnership is taking. It will include players from Charlton coming to the Caribbean and Mount Pleasant for training experience, as well as our players and coaching staff as well as administrative staff going over there and getting to see how it is being done at that level, so we can replicate and improve."

Campbell is the first but Christie is confident that more players will follow his footsteps in the near future and benefit from top-class training from Charlton Athletic.

"Charlton is ranked number eight in English academies so they must be doing something well," he reasoned. "We are trying to assemble the best talents at the academy and that is one of the reasons that we know that this partnership will be beneficial to us because we are abiding to the best practices of how an academy should be run on a global standpoint."