Winston Chung-Fah, a legend in Jamaican football, former national coach and technical director, died on Thursday, November 8, 2018, in a Miami, Florida, hospital. He was 78 years of age and had been ill for some time.
Chung-Fah was the former coach of the Santos football club, which he founded, and Clarendon College. He had lived in the Cayman Islands and was awarded the Order of Distinction (OD) in the rank of commander by the Jamaican government in 2013 in recognition of his 50 years of inspiring and directing some of the most talented and successful Jamaican football players at both schoolboy and national levels.
Chung-Fah received the FIFA Order of Merit in 2012 at the opening of the 82nd FIFA Congress for his contributions to the sport of football. Chung-Fah helped the Santos team earn a place in the CONChACAF Champions Cup in 1970, and in 1991, as national technical director, he led Jamaica to the Shell Caribbean Cup title.
In addition to coaching Division 1, Under-14, Under-17, and Senior League football players since the late 1970s, Chung-Fah was an active advocate for the sport in the United States, where he worked with the American Youth Soccer Organization and licensed coaches, organized soccer clinics, and held workshops and seminars.
Born in Clarendon, Chung-Fah founded the Santos Football Club in 1964 to expand opportunities for underprivileged players in the inner city. He coached at Vere Technical for four years and helped the team win the DaCosta Cup and the Olivier Shield titles. He also coached at Campion College.
Chung-Fa served as a coach at Clarendon College, developing one of the greatest of Jamaica’s schoolboy teams, which won the DaCosta Cup and the Olivier Shield in 1977 and 1978. In 1989, Chung-Fah became the technical director for the Cayman Islands Football Association. He returned to Jamaica in 1991 and served as the technical director for the Jamaica Football Federation for two years. During this time he led the national team to the Shell Caribbean Cup championship. In 1996, he went back to the Cayman Islands as technical director at Scholars Sports Club and then two years later, at the Academy Sports Club, leading his youth teams to a number of national titles.
The football community in Jamaica is mourning the passing of Chung-Fah, with the Jamaica Football Federation president Michael Ricketts stating that “Chungy certainly must be listed as one Jamaica’s legends as it relates to the sport of football.” Andrew Price, Assistant Coach of the Reggae Girls, expressed his regret at learning of the death of Chung-Fah, noting personally that he considered him a “mentor and a father.” He added that Chung-Fah was one of the “great football minds that this country has ever produced.” Lenworth Hyde, who played for Coach Chung-Fah on the history-making Clarendon College team and who now coaches at the school Chung-Fah helped to make famous, said that the coach taught him everything he knew about football and life, adding that he will be “sadly missed.”
Photo Source: True Blue Weekend
Updated: Included Chung-Fa coaching at Campion College
