Richard Kingson was the only player to compete in all of Ghana’s 12 qualifying matches en route to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. In fact, the Accra-born goalkeeper was the only international to play every minute of the preliminaries, which started in Kumasi in June 2008 with a 3-0 win over Libya and ended at the same venue with a 2-2 draw against Mali. The net-minder conceded just seven goals in the 12 matches.
Kingson has been Ghana’s first choice custodian since just before the 2006 FIFA World Cup, when he took over from Sammy Adjei. He has had a rich club career, including being naturalised in Turkey where his name was changed to Faruk Gursory to allow him to play as a local in the league. Kingson moved to Turkey from Accra Great Olympics in 1998 and played at six different clubs. The highlight was moving to Galatasaray for the 2004/05 season, but he was only used as the back-up goalkeeper. In 2007 he went from the Mediterranean climes of Turkey to the Scandinavian cold of Sweden where he played for Hammarby, and suddenly won himself some notoriety.
Birmingham City next signed him but his contract was cancelled early as the club were relegated and he saw little game time. Kingson followed coach Steve Bruce to Wigan Athletic, where he has also been a little-used reserve in the squad. But his irregular club football has not stopped him from delivering for Ghana. He captained an injury-hit, and inexperienced side, at the 2010 CAF Africa Cup of Nations finals in Angola, where for a second successive continental championship he was named among the best goalkeepers. Ghana won through to the final in Luanda in January and were semi-finalists on home soil in 2008. Kingson’s international career also includes a goal for Ghana, a free-kick scored against Tanzania in Dar-es-Salaam in August 2008.
