Damani Ralph

Damani Ralph (born 6 November 1980) is a Jamaican retired footballer who played as a forward. His professional career spanned five years, two with Chicago Fire S.C. (2003–2004) and three with FC Rubin Kazan (2005–2007). He also earned 18 caps with the Jamaica national football team from 2002 to 2005. He has been a Licensed FIFA player agent with Global Premier Management since 2011 and is also currently its vice president.[1]

Damani Ralph
Ralph as a trialist with New York Red Bulls.
Personal information
Full name Damani Ralph
Date of birth (1980-11-06) 6 November 1980
Place of birth Kingston, Jamaica
Height 1.84 m (6 ft 1⁄2 in)
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
1998 Harbour View F.C.
1999–2000 Meridian Community College
2001–2002 University of Connecticut
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2003–2004 Chicago Fire 51 (22)
2005–2007 Rubin Kazan 26 (2)
Total 77 (24)
National team‡
2002–2005 Jamaica 18 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 2 August 2009

Early life and career

Ralph began playing football as a boy in Jamaica. This included time with Harbour View and St. George's College before moving to the United States. Ralph began his career in America playing college soccer at Meridian Community College in Meridian, Mississippi, where he scored 59 goals in 45 games and was named MVP of the NJCAA Tournament. After two years with Meridian, Ralph left for the University of Connecticut, where he continued his dominant play. During his two years at Connecticut he scored 28 goals and added 11 assists, and was a Hermann Trophy finalist his senior year.

Professional

Major League Soccer

Ralph was drafted 18th overall by the Chicago Fire in the 2003 MLS SuperDraft. He quickly earned a spot in the starting lineup, and finished the season with 11 goals and 6 assists in 25 games. In scoring 11 goals, Ralph broke the MLS record for goals scored by a rookie, previously held by Rodrigo Faria, Josh Wolff, and Jeff Cunningham, and was named MLS Rookie of the Year for his accomplishments. In his second year with the Fire, he scored 11 goals again and added 3 assists to lead the team in scoring. Ralph scored the game-winning goal in the 2003 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final to win the Fire their third U.S. Open Cup.

Europe

Ralph actively pursued a move to Europe almost from his first day in Chicago. Some of the clubs reported as interested in Ralph included British clubs Sunderland and Bolton. In 2004, there were rumors that Ralph would move to the Spanish club Malaga, but MLS turned down a reputed $1 million (U.S.) transfer offer. However, in 2005 Ralph finally secured his long desired transfer to Europe. The move was for undisclosed terms - thought to be $2 million (U.S.) - to Russian Club FC Rubin Kazan.[2] The contract would run for three years with a starting yearly salary of $650,000.[3]

In his first season for Rubin, he scored only twice in 25 league games as his team gained a fourth-place finish.

Injury and retirement

In February 2006, before the new Russian season started, Ralph had surgery in Germany to repair damage to his left knee. Later that year he was treated for a second time and he was sidelined for over 2.5 years after undergoing a third consecutive knee operation at the start of 2008.[4]

Attempted Return to MLS

After almost three years out of professional football due to injury, during which he finished his economics degree at the University of Connecticut, Ralph reappeared on trial with Major League Soccer club New York Red Bulls during their 2010 pre-season.[5] The trial ended without a contract offer from the club.

International career

Ralph struggled to cement a starting place on the Jamaica national team, largely because of competition from a number of naturalized Jamaican forwards from England. He made his debut in an August 2002 friendly match against Grenada and earned 18 caps, scoring once. He played in 8 FIFA World Cup qualification matches.[6]

His final international was an October 2005 friendly against Australia.

Career statistics

Club
As of match played 20 May 2007[7][8]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup Continental Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Chicago Fire 2003 Major League Soccer 251132-413214
2004 261142-3013
Total 512274416227
Rubin Kazan 2005 Russian Premier League 25200-252
2006 000000-00
2007 100000-10
Total 2620000--262
Career total 772474418829

Honors

Club
Chicago Fire
Rubin Kazan

Individual

References
  1. Staff – Global Premier Management. Archived 10 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Jamaican Damani Ralph leaves Chicago for Russia Archived 27 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine - Caribbean Net News
  3. Ralph To Join Russian Club - The Reggae Boyz
  4. Damani still battling knee injury Archived 14 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine - Jamaica Gleaner
  5. "MLSNet". Archived from the original on 6 March 2010. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
  6. Record at FIFA Tournaments - FIFA
  7. "Damani Ralph". mlssoccer.com/. Major League Soccer. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  8. "Ральф Дамани". premierliga.ru/. Russian Premier League. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.