Mount Pleasant Football Academy has made a decisive move into European football by acquiring a controlling stake in Belgian third division club RAEC Mons — a strategic play that signals a broader ambition to bridge the gap between Caribbean talent and European opportunity.
But this isn’t just about Mount Pleasant. It’s about rewriting the script for how players across Jamaica and the Caribbean break into Europe’s fiercely competitive football ecosystem.
“This initiative isn’t confined to our academy,” said Paul Christie, Sporting Director at Mount Pleasant. “We’re building a launchpad for the entire Caribbean. Our goal is to institutionalize outcomes — real contracts, real playing time, real careers.”
Mount Pleasant has steadily built a reputation for not just developing players but engineering outcomes — tangible pathways into Europe’s football structure. The acquisition of RAEC Mons provides direct control of a European platform, meaning less reliance on third-party relationships and more autonomy in advancing regional talent.
Christie emphasized the strategic nature of the move: “Third-division Belgium might seem modest, but it’s a highly tactical decision. We’re working within realistic margins. These are the doors Caribbean players can walk through right now — and we intend to open them wide.”
He continued, “Too often, our players are held back not by lack of talent, but by lack of opportunity. That bottleneck ends here.”
This isn’t Mount Pleasant’s first international handshake. Last year, the club entered a formal partnership with English side Charlton Athletic — a relationship built on training exchange and exposure. But with RAEC Mons, the stakes are different. This isn’t partnership — it’s ownership.
Professional Football Jamaica’s CEO Owen Hill echoed the significance of the move: “What Mount Pleasant has done is plant a Caribbean flag directly inside the European structure. This creates a sustainable route, not a one-off chance.”
Hill noted that strategic ownership brings with it far more control over player placement, development strategy, and scouting alignment. “This isn’t just good for Mount Pleasant,” he said. “This is good for the nation. For the region. It creates a blueprint.”
In a region long filled with raw footballing brilliance but short on structural exits to the global stage, Mount Pleasant’s move is not only disruptive — it’s instructive. Rather than waiting for scouts to find them, they’ve decided to buy the stage.
And with RAEC Mons now under Caribbean ownership, the message is clear: Europe is no longer an elusive dream for Jamaican and Caribbean players — it’s an accessible reality with the right infrastructure, backed by the right vision.
