Ricardo Wayne Gardner (born 25 September 1978), commonly known as Bibi, is a Jamaican former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

. He works as assistant coach at Portmore United. A

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, he could also play in the centre of midfield or at

left wingback In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He last played for Bolton Wanderers in May 2012, completing a 14-year spell at the club, of which 11 were spent in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

. Gardner earned 111 caps for the

Jamaica national football team The Jamaica national football team, nicknamed the "Reggae Boyz", represents Jamaica in international football. The team's first match was against Haiti in 1925. The squad is under the supervising body of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), ...

, scoring 9 goals and playing at four

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

s and the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Playing career

Club career

Early career

Born in

Saint Andrew, Jamaica Saint Andrew is a parish, situated in the southeast of Jamaica in the county of Surrey. It lies north, west and east of Kingston, and stretches into the Blue Mountains. In the 2011 census, it had 573,369, the highest population of any of th ...

, Gardner began his professional career with Harbour View, where he debuted as a starter at the age of only 14 years. He also, representing Wolmer's Boys' High School, dominated the local high school football leagues and was considered outstanding. His performances for

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

during the 1998 World Cup attracted English First Division side Bolton Wanderers to offer Harbour View £1 million for his services.

Bolton Wanderers

Gardner immediately established himself a place in the first team for Bolton. He came on as a substitute to make his debut against Hartlepool in the League Cup on 25 August 1998, and made his league debut as a substitute again against West Bromwich Albion on 8 September 1998. In this game, Bolton were reduced to 10 men after the sending off of

Guðni Bergsson Guðni Bergsson (born 21 July 1965) is an Icelandic former professional footballer and former president of the Icelandic Football Association from 2017 to 2021. As a player, he was a defender who notably played in the Premier League for Tott ...

shortly after Gardner came on, but he scored a late winner to give his team a memorable 3–2 victory over West Brom. He made 22 appearances, half of them starts, in his first year while scoring three goals. In his second season, 1999–2000, he established a place in the starting eleven, starting 23 of 26 games, that he has held on to since. Although Gardner suffered a

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's la ...

injury that took him out of action at the end of the season, he made a full recovery, and was able to return to the starting line-up in 2000–01 (scoring in the 2001 Division One Play off Final), playing with the promoted Bolton in the Premier League. He was voted Bolton Wanderers F.C. Player of the Year for the 2005–06 season by the club's fans. Due to a knee injury, Gardner did not make his first appearance in the 2006–07 season until December. In November 2007, he scored his first goal at club level in nearly five years when he opened the scoring in Bolton's 2–2 draw against German giants Bayern Munich at the

Allianz Arena Allianz Arena (; known as Fußball Arena München for UEFA competitions) is a football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany with a 70,000 seating capacity for international matches and 75,000 for domestic matches. Widely known for its exterio ...

in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

group stage. A year later after being moved from a wing-back role back into midfield he scored in the Wanderers 2–0 win over local rivals Manchester City. Gardner made his 400th appearance for Bolton in a 3–0 defeat to Fulham on 27 April 2011. On 24 May 2011, he was in discussions to extend his Bolton contract into a fourteenth year. Gardner rejected a move to

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

favouring to sign a new one-year contract at Bolton, which he signed on 5 August. He made four league appearances at the beginning of the next season but was sent off for two bookable offences in Bolton's 3–1 defeat at Swansea City on 29 October and then suffered an injury, making no further appearances that year. At the close of the January 2012 transfer window, he wasn't named in Bolton's twenty five man Premier League squad for the second half of the season meaning he would play no further part in the league campaign. It was later revealed that he had been omitted due to having had an operation on his knee that the Bolton medical staff could not guarantee he would recover from in time to play again that season. It was announced on 18 May 2012 that Ricardo had left the club in line with the expiration of his contract. At the time, Gardner was the second longest serving foreign player in Premier League history after serving fourteen years at Bolton, only beaten by his former Bolton teammate

Jussi Jääskeläinen Jussi Albert Jääskeläinen (; born 19 April 1975) is a Finnish football coach and retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. During his career, Jääskeläinen most notably represented Bolton Wanderers from 1997 until 2012, making 530 app ...

Preston North End (loan)

On 8 March 2011, Gardner went to Preston North End on an emergency one-month loan as cover for Phil Brown's side. Bolton manager

Owen Coyle Owen Columba Coyle (born 14 July 1966) is a professional football manager and former player who is currently the manager of Scottish Championship club Queen's Park. He played as a striker for several clubs in England and Scotland, and made one ...

said it was a great chance for Gardner to improve his match fitness after only just recovering from injury. He made his debut the following day at the left-back position in the 2–1 loss to

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

and played three more games for the club.

Retirement

After the end of his contract with Bolton Wanderers, he spent a year training at his old club,

and Barnsley to keep up his fitness, and played in two reserve team matches for West Ham but decided to leave England to seek a move to the

MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

. He went on an unsuccessful trial at

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 2 ...

where he played for the reserves in a 1–0 win against the Portland Timbers reserves and announced his official retirement in May 2014.

International career

Gardner rose to international prominence following the 1998 World Cup. Gardner was an important player for the Jamaican national team and earned his place as the team's captain, captaining the team between 2005 and 2009. He also captained the team for one game in 2012 at the

2012 Caribbean Cup The 2012 Caribbean Cup was the 17th edition of the Caribbean Cup, an international football competition for national teams of member nations affiliated with the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) of the CONCACAF region. The final stage was hosted by ...

Coaching career

In December 2015, Gardner was appointed as coach of the

U-20 team. Gardner resigned as Harbour View FC Head coach in December 2018. In March 2019, Gardner joined the staff of Portmore United as assistant coach. In 2021, Gardner left his role as head of Portmore United to move back to England.

Personal life

Gardner is a

rastafarian Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control ...

and sports

dreadlocks Dreadlocks, also known as locs or dreads, are rope-like strands of hair formed by locking or braiding hair. Origins Some of the earliest depictions of dreadlocks date back as far as 1600–1500 BCE in the Minoan Civilization, one of Europe ...

. He is part owner, with Robert Scarlett and Ian Goodison, of a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

, Heart of Love Production, which promotes

ragga Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music. Wayne Smi ...

and dancehall music.

Career statistics

:Source:

Honours

Caribbean Cup The Caribbean Cup was the championship tournament for national association football teams that are members of the Caribbean Football Union. The first competition, established by Shell and run by former England Cricket fast bowler Fred Rumsey, wa ...

: 1998 * 2001 Football League First Division Play-offs * Bolton Wanderers F.C. Player of the Year: 2005–2006

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, Ricardo 1978 births People from Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica Living people Jamaican Rastafarians Association football defenders Jamaican footballers Jamaica international footballers Jamaican expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Harbour View F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup players FIFA Century Club