Cole Palmer: Made in the Caribbean
"Welcome to paradise," says the local bar worker at Vibes Beach Bar and Grill in St Kitts as waves from the Caribbean Sea gently lap the shore nearby.
It's 14:27 local time on Sunday, 8 December 2024 and - despite the stunning surroundings - things are starting to get tense as the sun beats down on the open-air bar near the capital, Basseterre.
"Blow your whistle, ref," shouts Chelsea fan Cliff Brown at the large television screen in the bar.
Four thousand miles away in London - where fans are wearing gloves, scarves and big coats to keep out the winter chill - Son Heung-min has just scored in the sixth minute of stoppage time to give Tottenham a glimmer of hope in a scintillating derby with Chelsea.
Moments later it's all over. Chelsea hang on to win 4-3, their fourth straight league win.
Brown leaps from his bar stool to celebrate with a dozen other locals who have gathered to watch the match - and the Manchester-born player who proudly wears the flag of St Kitts and Nevis on his boots to honour his grandad and his family's roots.
"The truth is when you look at Cole Palmer, you don't naturally think about St Kitts and Nevis," Samal Duggins, the country's sports minister, says.
"However, it tells a true story of our heritage. That we are really a melting pot of all people."
St Kitts and Nevis is inspired by Palmer's story as BBC Sport discovered when it visited to learn about the incredible impact the 22-year-old has made on the tiny two-island nation.
In a residential area of Basseterre, where huge cruise ships carrying thousands of tourists dock each day, is a building in a sad state of disrepair.
Once a busy house full of life, 17 Dorset Village, St Kitts, now lies empty.
Hidden from the road by overgrown shrubs and weeds, it will soon be knocked down.
It is here where Palmer's grandfather Sterry was born on 27 December 1953.
"This is the house my grandfather, Charles Ward, and grandmother, Emily Dore, built," Ossie Martin, one of Sterry's cousins, says outside the now crumbling building.
"At the time people used to call us rich. Dorset was a really upmarket area.
"This house had four bedrooms, a tiled bathroom, kitchen, dining room and a living room.
"I grew up here with my grandmother, grandfather and my aunts, who doted on us. Then you had all your cousins around you."
In 1955, Sterry's parents, Estelle Ward and James Palmer, took the painful decision to leave him and his older brother St Clair behind in search of a better life for their family as part of the Windrush generation.
People in the Caribbean were invited to the United Kingdom to help rebuild post-war Britain.
The government needed workers to help fill labour shortages and rebuild the economy. Caribbean countries were also struggling economically, and job vacancies in the UK offered an opportunity.
Sterry - known as Stez to family and friends - was looked after by grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins after his parents travelled to the UK by boat.
"Stez and I would play in the park across the road," adds Ossie. "We didn't have lots of toys so you made your own fun.
"We'd make our own carts, we'd stand on steel drums and roll them, and we'd use a stick to guide the rim from a bicycle wheel."
In 1960, at the age of six, Sterry travelled to England along with St Clair, Ossie and Ossie's younger brother, Errol.
"We were put on the boat to Barbados and then went on to Southampton," recalls Ossie.
Sterry's parents had settled in Moss Side, Manchester, where many other families from St Kitts and Nevis - who were also part of the Windrush generation - had set up home.
A homesick Ossie recalls longing to return to the Caribbean soon after arriving in Manchester.
"It was depressing initially," he says.
"It's not like we left St Kitts and went up in the world. After arriving in England we went down in the world.
"In St Kitts I had a tiled bathroom, I had a fridge. When I went to Moss Side, Sterry lived downstairs with his family and we lived upstairs.
"The children had to use the outside toilet and we didn't have a fridge. It felt like a comedown."
Palmer is the childhood Manchester United fan who grew up idolising Wayne Rooney and honed his playing skills in the cage next to the skate ramps in Wythenshawe's Hollyhedge Park.
As a Year 6 pupil, he confidently wrote "a footballer" in his book at Gatley Primary School, Cheadle, when asked to complete the sentence "One day I'll be...".
Think Palmer and you think of a player who plays with swagger and is box office to watch.
A down to earth Manchester lad tipped for a long and successful England career whose dad says of him: "He doesn't want to be famous. He doesn't want stardom. He just wants to be a footballer."
Think Palmer and your thoughts turn to those deadpan television interviews.
Someone who went viral on social media when he said "chippy chips" are part of his favourite post-match meal, and who regularly returns to Manchester to visit his parents Jermaine - Sterry's son - and Marie, and sister Hallie. An importance placed on family that began in St Kitts.
While cricket was huge back home, Sterry became more interested in football after growing up in Kippax Street, close to Manchester City's old Maine Road ground.
Sterry and Ossie went on to play in the same West Manchester Boys team together.
"Every Sunday afternoon – summer and winter – we'd be in the park playing football," recalls Ossie.
Sterry made Manchester his home and would later raise a family in the area.
Now aged 71, he is bursting with pride at the achievements of his grandson who has gone from playing for local junior side NJ Wythenshawe to establishing himself as one of England's brightest talents.
In the early days Palmer would pick up tips from his dad, a Sunday League player for Blackboy FC - who take their name from the pub close from where they lived.
Jermaine would wrap his son up in his rain coat before games at Firbank Park, Blackboy's home ground - also known as Rogers Park - and a young Palmer would watch on.
He was signed by Manchester City at under-eight level after being spotted playing in Wythenshawe by coach Billy Hughes, who coincidentally was born in St Kitts before moving to England.
He has 36 goals in 54 Premier League appearances since joining Chelsea from City in a £42.5m deal in September 2023, while Palmer is tipped for a brilliant England career after scoring against Spain in the Euro 2024 final.
Despite his success, Palmer has not forgotten where it all began.
He has the flag of St Kitts and Nevis stitched into his boots - alongside the England flag - as a mark of respect to his dad's side of the family.
"When I was four or five my dad used to take me over the road to the park opposite our house in Wythenshawe," Palmer said in 2022.
"We'd do that every single day whatever the weather - and my dad's family is from St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean. He hates going out in the cold. But he'd do it for me anyway.
"That's why I got the St Kitts flag on my boots, as a little tribute to him and his family."
It is a gesture that has not been lost on locals in St Kitts.
Palmer's "cold" goal celebration is copied by schoolchildren across St Kitts and Nevis which has a population of 47,775 - smaller than capacities at seven Premier League grounds.
Over at Tyrrell-Williams Primary School in Old Road Town, on the west coast of St Kitts, a dozen or so children are holding up a banner that reads 'We Love Cole Palmer' with a picture of the player's face on it.
"He's the best footballer in the world," one of the children says confidently. "Better than Messi!"
Another adds: "He's the next GOAT (greatest of all time)," before his friend interrupts him to say: "He isn't the next GOAT - he's already the GOAT!".
Palmer's performances for Chelsea are discussed regularly on the airwaves of local radio station Freedom FM.
"I liked him before but I absolutely love him now," says Leslie 'Sugar Bowl' Morton, a radio disc jockey and Chelsea fan.
"He's an international star, he plays for England, and for him to honour his grandfather by wearing the flag of St Kitts and Nevis on his boots - that's cool.
"When I do my sports package on the radio I always refer to Cole Palmer as the man with SKN (St Kitts and Nevis) blood running through his veins."
Palmer, however, still has some catching up to do when it comes to true sporting icons from this part of the world.
Tucked behind Basseterre's bustling indoor market, where locals come to buy freshly caught fish, fruit and vegetables, is a wall with the smiling face of an athlete painted on it.
The events of 25 August 2003 are a source of immense national pride.
That's the date Kittitian sprinter Kim Collins won 100m gold at the World Athletics Championships in Paris in a time of 10.07 seconds.
Kim Collins Day is celebrated annually here.
As well as a mural, there is an athletics stadium and a road named after the five-time Olympian on an island just 23 miles long and five miles across at its widest.
"We have a saying in St Kitts 'we are small, but we are tallawah'," says taxi driver Leroy Matthew, a proud Kittitian, as music from singer Joan Armatrading - who was born on the island - plays through the speakers.
"It means even though we're small, we can do great things."
More recently, Mikyle Louis became the first player from the island to play Test cricket for the West Indies, while the father of two-time Super Bowl winner Joshua Williams also comes from St Kitts.
In addition to Palmer, there are other current and former Premier League players with links to the island including Manchester United and England forward Marcus Rashford - through his grandmother - and former Manchester City and England defender Micah Richards - through his parents.
But it is the lad who grew up in Mayfair Road, Wythenshawe, who everyone here is excited to meet - including the Prime Minister.
On a field in Needmust, just outside Basseterre, buses full of boys and girls are arriving for training as part of the Nu Generation Saturday Grassroots Football Academy.
"Football is a way of life here," police inspector John Bergan, the academy's programme manager, explains.
"The children are hearing more about Cole Palmer every day, that his grandad hails from St Kitts. They all want to be Cole Palmer one day."
In December, Palmer's dad Jermaine sent dozens of Chelsea shirts - with his son's name on the back - to the academy for young players to wear.
There are about 60 children aged between three and 12 at this particular session - as well as a VIP visitor.
About half an hour into training two black SUVs swing through the gates.
From one of the vehicles emerges Dr Terrance Drew, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis.
He spends about half an hour with the children - taking part in the training and exchanging high-fives, fist-bumps and smiles - before sitting down to discuss Palmer and the impact he has made on the island.
"His story is an example of never forgetting where you come from," says Dr Drew.
"When Cole Palmer steps on to the pitch I'm pretty sure he can hear his grandfather's voice in his head saying 'my roots, your roots'.
"When he steps out we feel that, we connect with that. He is saying to the world 'this is who I am, I couldn't be who I am without my roots'.
"His roots are from a very small island in the Caribbean. His family migrated to the UK and he's been able to elevate himself in the elite sport of football.
"That's inspiring. That's a powerful story. You cannot make that up."
You have to scroll all the way down to 144th to find St Kitts and Nevis on Fifa's world rankings list behind Turkmenistan, Burundi and the Faroe Islands.
Their squad is sprinkled with a mixture of players from English non-league clubs such as Rashford's cousin Lois Maynard, who plays for National League North Radcliffe, as well as young talent at Premier League clubs like Liverpool Under-21 midfielder Kyle Kelly.
Was there an attempt to try to persuade Palmer to play for the 'Sugar Boyz' before he became a fully fledged England international?
"I don't know if the messages actually got to him," Atiba Harris, president of the St Kitts and Nevis Football Association, who played in the MLS and is Micah Richards' cousin, says.
"The first time I heard Cole's name was just over five years ago before I became president.
"We have a database which we use to look at almost every single player who has some sort of background to St Kitts and Nevis.
"We have agents who work on our behalf who try and reach out to players.
"We would have loved for him to represent us. However, he has been representing England and we're happy for him. He is clearly proud of his roots, so that's a positive for us."
St Kitts and Nevis, with the Caribbean Sea hugging the western side and the Atlantic Ocean embracing the eastern side, is a world away from Wythenshawe, where Palmer was born in 2002.
Palmer's dad was in St Kitts last year to see the old house in Dorset Village where his father was born.
Palmer has yet to visit but he would find an island full of warm people who are fascinated by his story if he does explore his family roots.
Jermaine said his son would "probably need a police escort" in St Kitts because of his popularity.
"I know people here who don't even support Chelsea but they love Palmer because of the flag on his boots," says 'Sugar Bowl'.
"I was at a local match recently and someone scored. The entire team did Palmer's celebration. I was like 'wow'.
"People are always asking 'when is he going to come to St Kitts?'. They cannot wait to see him."
Back to Vibes Beach Bar and Grill, where fans are dissecting Palmer's latest inspirational performance after the win over Spurs.
Premier League football is hugely popular in St Kitts, with Manchester United and Arsenal among the other teams locals follow.
But it is Chelsea who are becoming the island's favourite side.
There was already a healthy number of Blues fans here before Palmer's story came to light.
There are many more now because he shows off their flag.
In the corner of Vibes, an elderly man has a proud look on his face and gives a thumbs-up as the TV shows Palmer striding purposefully towards the dressing room after his two goals from the penalty spot - including a 'Panenka' - help Chelsea turn a 2-0 deficit into a 4-3 victory.
Leetus Ward, 72, is another of Sterry's cousins.
"We're the same bloodline," he says pointing to Palmer on the television screen.
"Everybody in St Kitts knows about him because of the flag on his boots. Cole's a superstar over here. Everybody wants to see him."
Credits
Written by Neil Johnston
Design by Lee Martin
Edited by Alice McKeegan
Subbed by Alan Jewell
Images by Rasheed Speede, Jagroop Shinbt and Getty Images
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