My name is Peter-Lee Vassell. I was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica on February 3rd, 1998. Football has always been my passion, but when I was younger, I never envisioned a path that would lead me to turn pro one day. Jamaica isn’t internationally recognized as a country that cultivates household names in football, so the odds were stacked against me from the beginning. My motivation to be the best intensified with each passing year, and I wanted to escape the struggles of living in the ghetto and play football at the highest levels possible.
When I was at Howard Cooke Primary School from the age of five to 11, I played in a league called VMBS, where we played against other schools in the area. Oftentimes, I played up an age group and would be the youngest kid on the team. We won the VMBS U12 title when I was 10, and that was the first winning team I had ever been a part of. Lifting the trophy was a special feeling.
“It was a fairytale ending.”
After primary school, I entered high school at Cornwall College. We were very talented and built a culture of excellence, winning championships when I was with the U14 and U16 teams. The competition in high school is considered the highest level of football in Jamaica and games that held the greatest significance garnered the attention of thousands of fans. I lived for those moments and it raised my level of play a great deal. I then started playing on the under 19 team for Cornwall when I was just 15 years old. We competed for the DaCosta Cup, a tournament comprising of many Rural Area schools from around Montego Bay. I played for about four to five years, but the summer before my last year of eligibility, I left the Caribbean for Wilmington, North Carolina. They had a USL team in 2015 called Wilmington Hammerheads FC and they had given me a pre-contract. However, I left stateside not long after arriving to return back home to where my heart was truly pulling me. The DaCosta Cup is one of the biggest football events in the country and I wanted to win more than anything after coming up empty-handed my first couple of years. In 2016, we reigned supreme and gave Cornwall College their first DaCosta Cup victory since 2001. I won MVP honors and it was a fairytale ending to a youth career that I am forever grateful for.
“I wanted to put myself in a position that would get me one step closer to my mission.”
I returned to the U.S. to play in the CASA tournament in Florida that gave me exposure to many scouts from Division I colleges and universities. The team was assembled with the 10 best players from the DaCosta Cup and the 10 best players from the Manning Cup, which is an Urban Area tournament for schools around the capital city of Kingston. Despite very few practices as a squad, we showed great chemistry on the pitch and won the tournament in dominant fashion. I was awarded MVP again and received several offers to go to college. Growing up, I didn’t have the mentality of going to school at this point in my life, but as more opportunities presented themselves, I found myself in a dilemma: Should I go to university or should I go pro? Most guys that play Division I never go on to represent their national team. Where I come from, playing for the “Reggae Boyz” is the biggest honor you can achieve playing football, and I wanted to put myself in a position that would get me one step closer to my mission. So I turned pro.
Falkland FC in Montego Bay is where I got my start as a professional when I was 17. I was still going to high school at the time too, and I was the only player on the active roster that did both. The level of play was extremely high, but I was ready for the step-up in competition. I ended up getting MVP of the league and that recognition helped get my name out there with some of the teams from higher tiers in Jamaica.
Former professional footballer Ricardo “Bibi” Gardner saw potential in me and was the coach with Harbour View FC at the time, which competes in the top flight of Jamaican football as a member of the RSPL (Red Stripe Premier League). As an 18-year veteran in England and a mainstay on the “Reggae Boyz” during his career, I admired his body of work. He took me under his wing as a mentor and a father figure, helping me acclimate to life in Kingston. I played two years for Harbour View, scoring three goals in 44 appearances and winning many game MVPs during my time there.
After my first year with Harbour View, I got my call up for the national team. That one phone call made all the hard work, dedication, and sacrifice devoted to the game of football since I was five years old worth it. I achieved my dream in the sport I love at such a young age, but ultimately my journey was just getting started.
One of the first competitions I was a part of with the national team was the Caribbean Cup. The combine includes all of the best players from the Caribbean, and Jamaica was the host the year I played in it. Individually, I performed really well and I got picked as the MVP. From there, I earned a straight contract from Jamaica to play in the MLS the next year. I was ecstatic about the opportunity to play in the highest tier of football in the U.S.
“The hunger inside of me dying to compete was reinvigorated.”
The wait for my name to be called in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft was quite stressful, but towards the end of the second round I finally found out where my next destination would be. I was selected by LAFC with the 40th selection, and this moment, along with getting called up to play for the Jamaican national team, were the greatest days of my life.
Right from the get-go, I was in the everyday lineup, making six appearances during the first few months of the season. However, André Horta, a player LAFC paid millions for, was on his way back from injury and he is a midfielder like me. The coach at the time, Bob Bradley, called me into a meeting to discuss where I fit in with the team. He told me I wasn’t going to be in the lineup the weekend Horta returned, but that he wanted me to stay in LA and continue to work hard in training. At first, I was not frustrated that I lost my spot because I was still young and willing to do whatever it took to prove to Bob that I was worthy of meaningful minutes in games. As weeks and months passed, I never made it back on the pitch for LAFC, and they never wanted to loan me either. I became fed up and confused, wanting an opportunity to play somewhere else. I organized another meeting with Bob to tell him my aspirations of getting loaned to Phoenix Rising FC in the USL Championship. There were a few Jamaican guys that I knew from the team who were all having a positive experience and I thought it could be a comfortable fit for me as well. Bob granted my wish and the hunger inside of me dying to compete was reinvigorated.
The move to Phoenix was smooth and I appeared in six games for the Rising, but I unfortunately got injured towards the end of September, cutting short my stay with the team.
I returned to LAFC and we ended up winning the Supporters Shield as the best regular-season team in the MLS. It was a history-making moment for the franchise because it was just their second year of existence after joining the MLS as an expansion team in 2018. This was the first international trophy I won in my career, and it was a great feeling to be a part of a group that knew how to win. Not many have done that coming from Jamaica.
LAFC did not see me as a piece for their future, so during the winter of 2020, I explored other options. I spent a couple of months training in Denmark until COVID-19 put everything on hold. Soon after, I went home to Jamaica without a job in football, and that would remain the same all through 2020. To stay in shape I did a lot of boxing and football-related drills to keep my skills sharp.
Once COVID restrictions were lifted and many football leagues resumed play, I was eager to be a part of a team again. My journey brought me back to America, and I signed with USL Championship side Indy Eleven for the 2021 season. It was a nice place to play and the supporters were incredible. Almost every home game was sold out with people screaming and cheering from start to finish. I had three goals in 20 appearances for Indy in what was a tough season overall, but I became great friends with many of my teammates there.
This past offseason I was contacted by Harry Watling. He said he really liked my game and that I would be a great fit for Hartford’s style of play. Now, Hartford is my home and while it’s been a bumpy start for us, we have a lot of quality players here that are capable of mounting a comeback. The most important thing is that we stick together and not dwell on a bad result that happened in the past. I always have a saying that “race is not for the swift, but we can endure.” We have to take control of our own destiny and work as hard as we can in training in order to slowly make our way back into the playoff race.
I’m Peter-Lee Vassell, and this is my story.
