JOE’s Forgotten Footballers: Hamilton Ricard

For a player that faded out of the scene so quickly, the name Hamilton Ricard will jog the memories of many Premier League supporters.

By Declan Whooley

Our series of Forgotten Footballers has looked at a broad range of players, from decent performers such as Dimitri Kharine and Regi Blinker, to the awful (Winston Bogarde) to the downright ridiculous in Marco Boogers. Colombian striker Ricard would fall into the first category, though he didn’t immediately bowl over the fans at Middleborough when he joined.

Relatively unknown to European observers, Boro shelled out £2 million in 1998 to bring the striker from Deportivo Cali after finishing as top scorer in the Colombian league with 36 goals and impressive performances for the national team at the 1997 Copa America and 1998 World Cup., coming off the bench to play against England in the group stages.

He struggled to adapt to the First Division, managing just nine goals and two games as Boro were promoted to the Premier League. The home supporters were far from convinced, with the cruel nickname Hamilton ‘Retard’ doing the rounds at the Riverside.

On a different level to Patrick Vieira

However the Colombian adapted better than anyone expected to the top flight, finishing as the club’s top scorer (he would do so the following year also) with an impressive tally of 15 goals. Only Man Utd duo of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Michael Owen and Nicolas Anelka scored more as he proved a handful for defenders.

The following season he hit 12 goals and as he scored a couple of sublime efforts in his time at the Riverside, few better than this curling effort against Bradford in the FA Cup in 2001 to hand his side victory.

The 2000/01 season he struggled for goals in the league, just four in 27 appearances and Steve McLaren deemed the Colombian surplus to requirements. The following season he moved to CSKA Sofia after four years in the North-East, with his ratio of a goal in every three games (132/43) not a bad return for £2 million and easily the most prolific striker since Fabrizio Ravanelli.

He failed to settle at CSKA and went on to have a nomadic career, playing for no fewer than eleven clubs in 13 years in 10 different countries. He is currently playing for Colombian outfit Cortula after a much travelled career, and while his Premier League career was short, he certainly left his mark.

Like all things Colombian he was inexpensive, hard to trace and provided some spectacular highs.