The mercurial Allan \u2018Skill\u2019 Cole, former Santos and Jamaica football star and manager of reggae superstar Bob Marley, passed away on Tuesday evening at age 74. His daughter, Debbie Cole, confirmed that the ailing sports legend had passed away after suffering heart failure at an undisclosed medical facility.<\/p>\n
Cole was defined by his prowess as a sportsman as much as his close friendship with reggae superstar Bob Marley. He toured with the King of Reggae as road manager for much of the 1970s, and lived for three years in Ethiopia, where he coached the national team.<\/p>\n
At the peak of his powers, Cole was a midfield maestro and remained the Jamaica\u2019s youngest senior football international, donning national colours against a Brazilian team when he was only 15 years old. He was one of Jamaica\u2019s most popular sportsmen throughout the 1970s as Cole reached folk hero status with athletic feats for Santos in the local National League that football aficionados labelled as \u2018legendary\u2019.<\/p>\n
Football genius Alan \u2018Skill\u2019 Cole may, perhaps, be the most authentic repository of many untold stories about the life of reggae superstar Robert Nester Marley. Once the music manager of Marley, Cole was extremely close to the music legend, particularly at a time when Marley was on the threshold of becoming the greatest reggae artist of all time.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people jumping on the bandwagon and claiming that they know about Bob, most of it is just fiction,\u201d Cole revealed in a Gleaner interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cBob is a man who never talk much, so it is unlikely that people would know much about him. I am the only person that I can honestly tell you that he didn\u2019t hide anything from. When we used to drive together and sell records, Bob would tell me stories. He would drive, and I would listen, and as soon as anyone came close, he would cut off \u2013 and that was the quiet part that nobody knew. He told me his life story, and I don\u2019t think anybody else knows,\u201d Cole revealed.<\/p>\n
Music and football were the unifying forces that brought the two mega-stars together. According to Marley\u2019s confidant, \u201cHe loved football, and I loved music. It was part of a divine plan. That\u2019s how we came together\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cole first met Marley at a minor league football match in Trench Town in the early 1960s, but the friendship wasn\u2019t cemented until the latter part of the decade when the Wailers (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer) began to conduct their own business under their Wail \u2018n\u2019 Soul record label.<\/p>\n
Right on the heels of this venture, Cole entered into a business relationship with the Wailers by becoming their manager, while Marley had the vision of starting a new company and a new label.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted something tough like a gong,\u201d Cole reminisced.<\/p>\n
The association between the two ventured into certain unexpected areas like songwriting mentorship, and mediation. Cole wrote Marley\u2019s big hit,\u00a0\u2018Rat Race\u2019<\/em>,<\/strong>\u00a0and co-wrote with him on\u00a0\u2018Natty Dread\u2019<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0\u2018Johnny Was\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, which told the story about a talented young musician who was shot dead.<\/p>\n The recordings\u00a0\u2018One Love\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, voted the song of the millennium by the BBC, and \u2018Cry to Me\u2019<\/strong>, originally recorded by the group for the Studio 1 label, were reworked by Marley at the instigation of Cole.<\/p>\n The lives of Cole and Marley also intersected in the Beautiful Game, football.<\/p>\n