Former Canada men’s national team manager John Herdman has emerged as a serious contender for the Jamaican men’s national team job, sources tell Sports Illustrated.
Jamaica has yet to conduct any official interviews, but is targeting a new manager after Steve McClaren resigned following the 0–0 draw with Curaçao, which became the smallest nation to ever qualify for a World Cup. The result saw the nation miss out on an automatic Concacaf 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying spot, meaning their hopes of securing a first World Cup berth since 1998 rest on the inter-confederation playoffs in March.
Steve McClaren has resigned as manager of the Jamaica National Team after failing to automatically qualify for the World Cup 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/d5Pxb8nGwD
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) November 19, 2025
Sources with knowledge of the search said Jamaica had established contact with Herdman's camp prior to McClaren's resignation.
Herdman, 50, coached Canada through Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifying, helping them advance to the tournament for the first time in 36 years. Under his tutelage from 2018 to 2023, Canada rose from 95th to crack the top 30 in the FIFA men's world ranking for the first time.
The English-born manager left the Canada role in August 2023, taking on the managerial duties with MLS club Toronto FC, before resigning in November 2024 after a single season in charge.
Drone Scandal Closed
His departure from Toronto came amid the fallout of a Canada Soccer investigation sparked by the drone-spying scandal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, which saw Canada’s women’s national team suffer a points deduction and manager Bev Priestman, among others, lose their roles with Canada Soccer.
Before his time with Canada’s men, Herdman managed the Canadian women's team from 2011–2018, winning two Olympic bronze medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016.
An independent review by Sonia Regenbogen of the law firm Mathews, Dinsdale and Clark into the drone-spying scandal stated the “practice of conducting surreptitious surveillance of opponents” began before the Paris Olympics.
A further disciplinary hearing, conducted by a three-person panel independent of Canada Soccer, ended with Herdman receiving a written admonishment in March.
“The chapter is well and truly closed,” Herdman told The Canadian Press earlier this year. “I made my case very clearly to Canada Soccer and their response was not even a yellow card. … That was the outcome, a letter of admonishment.”
Waiting on a Transformative Opportunity
Herdman has been adamant that he is not out of soccer for good.
However, the ideal opportunity will have to present itself, and has not since leaving Toronto. Sources confirmed that he had been approached by clubs in England and Canada, as well as an international side outside of Concacaf.
He has taken the year off professional coaching to get away from the spotlight and spend more time with his family in Vancouver, including his son, Jay Herdman, who plays professionally for Cavalry FC of the Canadian Premier League.
“I’m just raring to get back in, and it’s just picking the right opportunity, whether it's an international or club,” Herdman told Sports Illustrated columnist Henry Winter in May. “I’ve got a specific skill set. I like that transformational opportunity where you’re able to bring something back from the dead and build it to become something quite historic.”
Herdman’s specialty has been team and culture building, and rallying a strong group to perform beyond the sum of its parts, as he showed with Canada on the road to the 2022 World Cup.
Consolidating my old documents and found the Vision boards we developed and socialized in Canada 2012-2019 for our Women's and 2018-2026 Men's programmes. Player, Board, Provincial, Government, Coaches meetings and workshops, what a journey looking back. Vision first... pic.twitter.com/MWGyozGD75
— John Herdman (@coachherdman) September 18, 2025
Should the Jamaica job come to fruition, he would likely not be required to live in Jamaica, a situation similar to that of the current Canada men’s manager, Jesse Marsch, who lives in Italy.
And it's clear the parameters of success with the Jamaica role are to qualify via the playoffs.
“To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. We engaged [current Republic of Ireland manager] Heimir Hallgrímsson, then he left, we thought Steve McClaren would have been a good replacement, it has turned out that he has not been such a good replacement. We are supremely disappointed,” Jamaican Football Federation president Michael Ricketts said after the Curaçao match.
“We will reorganize, we have a second bite of the cherry, we will put things together and of course have an emergency meeting with the technical staff, and we will put an interim coach in place”.
To make the 2026 World Cup, Jamaica will need to win two games in the inter-confederation playoffs, held in Mexico in March. The 2026 FIFA World Cup runs from June 11 to July 19 across cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
READ THE LATEST SOCCER NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MATCH REACTION
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sources: Ex-Canada Manager John Herdman Being Considered for Jamaica Job.
