Ghana U-20 FIFA World Cup winner and U-17 Silva Boot winner Ransford Osei retires from football at 30 years as one of the WORLD’S famous footballers to retire too early
Former Ghana U-20 International Ransford Osei announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 30 years in what is seen as a youthful retirement put into the ranks with the likes of Zidane, Best and Cantona.
Ransford Osei burst into top flight football after helping Ghana to win fourth place in 2007 FIFA World Cup in South Korea having been beaten by Germany in a fight for a third place. Before that he lifted the African U-17 Championship Silva Boot award.
Osei came home from the World tournament held in Asia with the Silva Shoes after grabbing 6 goals in the World Cup finals whiles the Golden Ball winner Marcauley Chrisantus scored one more ahead of the Ghanaian International.
Having reached that milestone in his football ladder at that young age, Osei has finally quite football after making announcement in an interview with Humble Ike on a YouTube channel.
The 30-yeal old former football started his football career at his homeland club Kessben FC now Medeama SC in 2005. After the 2007 World Cup, Osei was expected to join Polish club Legia Warszawa on a six-month loan contract which gave the Polish club the option to buy the player during that time.
However, due to a work permit issue, the transfer was blocked by FIFA as Osei stayed in Kessben. While raised to prominence at the age of 16 years when he won the Silva Shoes at 2007 FIFA World Cup, Osei has hang his boot after 14 years in what is described by Ghanaians as short period with failed football career.
Ransfrod Osei now becomes one of the youngest footballers to retire worldwide with the likes of greats Eric Cantona (30), George Best (before 28th birthday), Zinedine Zidane (34), Just Fontaine (29), Marco Van Basten (31) and Carlos Roa (29) included in bleacherreport’s 25 footballers who retired too early.
In Ghana, famous stars Asamoah Gyan, Sulley Muntari, Emmanuel Agyemang Badu and Kevin Prince-Boateng have recently retired from football at younger ages but only with national team while they still play at club level.
With Osei making no differentiation in his announcement of retirement, the former forward becomes the youngest famous Ghanaian footballer to retire too early.
The Black Satellite (Ghana U-20 team) qualified to the 2009 FIFA World Cup finals in Egypt after winning the African Youth (U-20) Championship in Rwanda and Ransford Osei scored 7 goals to emerge top scorer of the competition.
While on repetition on what he did on in 2007, Osei was outshined by teammate Dominic Adiyiah who eventually won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball awards. Osei was joint with Brazil’s Alan Kadec, Spain’s Aaron, Yonathan del Valle and Venezuela’s Soloman Rondon for third top scorer place with 4 goals each.
The Youth tournaments forced FIFA to describe Ransfrod Osei as”an opportunistic goal machine” with superb pace and movement, young free-scoring sensation Osei was recognized by World Soccer Magazine as one of the 50 Most Exciting Teenagers on the Planet in their November 2007 Issue.
Despite flourishing in those World Cups especially after helping Ghana beat Brazil on penalties to the U-20 World Cup title, Osei has failed to live up to expectation at both club and senior team levels.
He has played for FC Twente, Granada B, Bloemfontein Celtic, Asante Kotoko, Polokwane City after 2009 without scoring more than five goals in a single season for any of his clubs.
Osei also failed to play for any of the top European clubs given his achievement at youth level at the world stage. After the U-20 World Cup, Osei was heavily linked with a move to Atletico Madrid but the deal collapse as Adiyiah sealed a move to Seria A outfit AC Milan.
His tournament colleague Toni Kroos has won the UEFA Champions League with Bayern Munich and Real Madrid whiles Bojan Krkic has played for FC Barcelona.
On 13 November 2007, three weeks before his 17th birthday, he received his first senior International call-up from Ghana coach Claude Le Roy for a FIFA International friendly match against Togo at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra.
He was selected among the Ghana squad for 2010 Africa Cup of Nations tournament at Angola even though he didn’t appear in any of the matches.
Black Stars won silver in that tournament after been beaten by Egypt in the final. The last time the ex- Starlets forward played football was in 2018 during his short spell with Lithuanian outfit FK Palanga.
Meanwhile there have been allegations of interference and bribery scandals in the Black Stars camp and Osei has thrown more light about the rumours.
The Ghana former forward reveals a bizarre experiences at national team camps with officials collecting bribe from players for selection into tournaments and even matches.
Watch full video on retirement and Black Stars witches here
