Flemmings flying high after French club Toulouse win promotion to Ligue 1
Jamaica’s international footballer Junior Flemmings is on cloud nine after his French club Toulouse Fc won the second division league title to secure promotion to the top-tier Ligue 1.
With one round of games left to complete the Ligue 2 season, Toulouse are in an unassailable position on 79 points, five clear of second-place Ajaccio.
“It’s a big thing and the biggest achievement in my club career thus far,” Flemmings told the Jamaica Observer via telephone yesterday.
“It’s not only being promoted to Ligue 1, it’s winning the championship. If anyone had asked me if I thought that in 2022 I’d be playing in Europe, win the championship and moving up to Ligue 1… but you just never know what this sport has to offer.
“I was brought in halfway through the season and to have this accomplishment on my resume is a big plus for me,” the 26-year-old Reggae Boy, who started his club career with Jamaica’s Tivoli Gardens FC, reflected.
Flemmings, a hard-working player who has been utilised in wide or central attacking roles or as a centre forward, represented a number of teams in North America’s second-tier United Soccer League before making the move to France in January of this year.
Though he has had limited playing time — a couple of very brief substitute appearances — it has been a fantasy fulfilled because of plain dedication and industry.
“To play in Europe was always a dream for me. In the blink of an eye and you’re having a good season or good moments — some people might say it’s luck, but it’s just the hard work that you’ve been putting in over the years and that’s the reward for that,” he explained.
Flemmings said climbing to Ligue 1, and rubbing shoulders with one of Europe’s finest in French champions Paris Saintgermain, a club which currently features modern-day greats Lionel Messi, Neymar Junior and
Kylian Mbappe, will be a mighty challenge.
But it’s one the Jamaican is eager to face.
“Obviously, that will be a totally different challenge from Ligue 2, the preparation, and all of that. And we’re looking at playing against players at the very top level, so it’s literally a huge step, but with hard work and commitment nothing is impossible. We just have to put in a lot where pre-season is concerned and we go from there,” he said.
Though only a few months into his French sojourn, Flemmings said he is settling down well in Toulouse, the country’s fourth largest city behind Paris, Marseille and Lyon.
“The atmosphere from minute one has been good. It’s a really good group of guys,” said the former Phoenix Rising and Birmingham Legion player.
“Maybe a lot of people would have thought I’d have a problem with the language barrier, and all that, but pretty much everyone on the team speaks English and I have French classes, like, twice a week. I’ve progressed a lot in terms of speaking the language, and all of that.
“In training the coach can give an instruction or say something or have an exercise for us and I completely understand. I’ve come a long way where that is concerned, so it’s not like at any given point I feel lost or I don’t know what’s going on,” he told the Observer.
“Other players have got similar opportunities and they managed it. Look at [Reggae Boy teammates] Shamar Nicholson and Leon [Bailey]; both went to non-english speaking countries, so it wasn’t an issue for me either,” Flemmings said.