On January 7th, 1985, Jamaican international football player Ryan Thompson was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He plays for the Austin Bold FC in the USL Championship and is also the league’s goalkeeping coach. He was the starting keeper at Harbour View before accepting a soccer scholarship at the University of Tampa in Tampa, Florida, where is was an All-American. He played for the Tampa Spartans 57 times while at the university. He also played for the Bradenton Academics in the USL Premier Development League during his college years. After graduation, Thompson signed with the MPS Portland Phoenix in Main for the 2010 PDL season, where the team finished as runner-up in the Eastern Conference Northeast Division. Thompson played 13 games for the Phoenix in his one season with the club.
In July of 2011, Thompson became the first Jamaican to play in the Championship League when the Shamrock Rovers team played FC Copenhagen at the UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round. Thompson and the Rovers advanced to the 2011-2012 Europa League play-off round, and in the competition ultimately advanced to the Europa League group stage. In that match in Belgrade, Thompson performed an amazing save in the first half, marking a famous victory for Irish football: it was the first time an Irish club reached the group stages of a major European competition.
In 2014, he was called up to join a squad for that year’s Caribbean Cup but was an unused substitute in every match. He was recalled by Jamaica in March of 2015 for friendlies against Cuba and Venezuela but chose to stay with his club team, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds to play in the team’s first match of the USL 2015 season.
Thompson was included on Jamaica’s roster for the 2015 Copa America and named to the final 23-man roster for the CONCACAF Gold Cup in that year. He made his first Gold Cup appearance in July 2015 against El Salvador following a head injury suffered by Dwayne Miller. He made several saves in that match and preserved Jamaica’s 1-0 victory. Thompson signed with the USL club Saint Louis FC on March 3, 2016, and was released by the club on November 6, 2016.
Photo source: Ryan Thompson Facebook
