JUST under a year ago, Roshane Sharpe wasn’t even a regular starter in the Clarendon Under-15 South Central Confederation championship team. He was mainly used as an impact player when coach Garfield Robinson wanted to get rid of opponents.

However, one daCosta Cup campaign and nine Major League games later, the 15-year-old striker led Jamalco FC to mid-season glory with an extra-time winner against New Bowens in their March 10 final at Wembley Sports Club in Hayes.

Sharpe entered the park as a late second-half substitute as coach Garfield Carney searched for a formula to crack a stubborn New Bowens defence.

A neat build-up on the right sent him clean through on goal and the skinny frontman effortlessly settled the contest with a delicate chip over the advancing Bowens ‘keeper.

That goal, his fourth of the season, was perhaps the first real indication of his growing importance to a team that he was only drafted into by Carney — also his coach at Denbigh High — to gain experience.

It also highlighted the huge strides he has made in just eight months after scoring five goals coming off the bench for Denbigh in last season’s daCosta Cup.

“To be honest, I’m not really surprised that he’s improving so fast,” Carney said. “He’s a player who shows lots of promise and is always interested to learn new things, so I thought if we could get him into a good Major League team he could learn a lot from the older guys,” he added.

Getting the winner against Jamalco’s South Eastern Clarendon neighbours was easily his biggest performance of the season, but that moment of magic was not to be a one-off.

He added four more goals to end the season as the second highest scorer, and while it was not enough to give Jamalco the Clarendon/Captain’s Bakery Major League crown, it did earn him a place in the national Under-17 provisional squad.

“Because he’s a very young player, we are trying our very best to keep him grounded. It’s easy for them to get carried away at this age,” Carney noted.

The thing Carney seems to appreciate most about Sharpe is his versatility. Already standing at 6ft, he has the potential to become the ideal centre-forward, who likes to move with the ball and can be quite a handful in set-piece situations – qualities defenders hate to see in a striker.

“At the moment he prefers to go at defenders,” Carney said. “He doesn’t really like to play with his back towards the goal. He’s quick off the mark, has a good kick and his height also gives him an advantage in set-piece situations.”

The youngster, who turns 16 next month, loves football and says he constantly wants to improve himself to stay on top.

Sharpe seems to know exactly what he wants to achieve from the sport: “To become a professional player,” he said. He knows it will take time to be accomplished, but appears ready for the challenges that lie ahead.

“Other players and coaches start to notice that I’m a good player, so they will try to come up with a plan to stop me, but (I’m) prepared for that,” he said. “I know it will get harder, so (I’m) prepared to work harder.”