Onandi Lowe
Personal information
Full name	Onandi Lowe
Date of birth	December 2, 1974 (1974-12-02) (age 35)
Place of birth	Kingston, Jamaica
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Playing position	Forward
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1993–1996 1996–1997 1997–1998 1998–1999 1999 2000–2001 2001 2001 2001–2002 2002–2004 2004 2004–2005 2005–2008 2006 2008	Harbour View Montreal Impact Waterhouse F.C. Arnett Gardens Richmond Kickers Rochester Raging Rhinos → Port Vale (loan) Kansas City Wizards → Rushden & Diamonds (loan) Rushden & Diamonds Coventry City Arnett Gardens Portmore United → Miami FC (loan) Arnett Gardens	26 (15) 30 (14) 10 0(8) 16 (15) 19 0(5) 05 0(1) 13 0(4) 12 0(7) 78 (42) 02 0(1) 0? 0(2) 00 0(0)
National team
000–000 000–000 000–000 1995–2004	Jamaica under-17s Jamaica under-20s Jamaica under-23s Jamaica	65 (27)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Onandi Lowe (born 2 December 1974, also known as Nandi^[1]) is a Jamaican former international footballer. He spent some of his career in the Jamaican National Premier League as well as having stints in North America and England. Lowe, a World Cup veteran, was also known for getting on the wrong side of the law with drugs in the latter part of his career.

[edit] Club career

After leaving Dunoon Technical High in his hometown of Kingston,^[2] Lowe joined Harbour View, a top Jamaican club, in 1993. A big, versatile free-kick specialist who could play anywhere on the pitch and was known for his strong left foot, Lowe moved to Canada in 1996 to join Montreal Impact. He returned to Jamaica after two seasons with Impact, joining Waterhouse, but moved back to the A-League in 1999 with Richmond Kickers and then Rochester Raging Rhinos.

In 2001 he tried his luck in Europe, joining Port Vale on loan for the end of the 2000-01 season. Spending the rest of the year with new club Kansas City Wizards he joined Rushden & Diamonds on loan in December 2001. Singing permanently with Diamonds in February 2002,^[3] he spent two years with the club. Making close to 100 appearances and keeping a goal rate of better than one every two games he was a crowd favourite at Nene Park. Moving on to Coventry City in March 2004,^[4] he got off to a bad start with manager Eric Black after failing to report for duty following an international game.^[5] He scored once in two matches before he was released at the end of the 2003-04 season due to his ongoing drug trial.

Returning to Jamaica with old club Arnett Gardens, he attempted to return to England with Peterborough United in March 2005 and ran into problems gaining a work permit,^[6] rejection for his permit also prevented him a move to Oxford United later in the year.^[7] He started the 2006 season with Miami FC in the USA,^[8] only to be released after a month because of disciplinary problems.^[9] After two years with Portmore United he rejoined Arnett in the Jamaican National Premier League during the January 2008 transfer window.

[edit] International career

Lowe made his debut for the Jamaica in 1995 and he played two matches at the 1998 World Cup. He formed a prolific strike partnership with Walter Boyd in 'the Reggae Boyz "Road To France Campaign" in 1998, but since then found himself in-and-out out the team for mainly disciplinary reasons. His last international was a March 2004 friendly match against Honduras in which he also scored a goal. He earned over 60 caps for his country.^[10]

During his 2004 drug trial he was suspended from international duty and despite being cleared of the charges in 2005, the 31 year old Lowe was not selected again.

[edit] Controversy

Lowe was arrested by British police in April 2004 for trafficking £117,000 worth of crack cocaine, he denied the charges.^[11] The exact charge was 'attempting to possess 1.17kg (2.5lb) of crack cocaine with intent to supply'.^[12] The Prosecution claimed he signed for the package under the fake name of "Kevin Brown" and intended to profit financially from knowingly trafficking the drugs. Lowe countered that the fake name was to avoid paparazzi and that he had no idea about the contents of the package: "I am Jamaican, maybe you think differently. If I am a mate and you said, 'can you do that for me', I am not going to think anything bad of you."^[13] Lowe said in a police interview: "I thought he was a friend". In February 2005 he was cleared as the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence.^[14]

He was arrested and charged in St Catherine in December 2007 for possession of marijuana.^[15] He had been driving a car with 42 marijuana cigarettes, he posted the $300 bail and was released from custody.^[16]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Onandi Lowe career stats at Soccerbase
• Profile and UK career stats at Rushden & Diamonds's official site
• Profile at National Football Teams

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