Damani Ralph

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Damani Ralph (born November 6, 1980 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican football player, who currently plays as a striker for FC Rubin Kazan in Russia.

Ralph began playing football as a boy in Jamaica. This included time with Harbour View and Jamaica 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.

Ralph was then 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 deservedly 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.

Despite having been the best of the Jamaicans playing in MLS, Ralph has struggled to cement a starting place on the Jamaica national team, largely because of competition from a number of naturalized Jamaican forwards from England.

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 rumours 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. The contract would run for three years with a starting yearly salary of $650,000.[1]

In February 2006, Ralph had surgery in Germany to repair damage to his left knee.