Laryea Kingston
Personal information
Full name	Laryea Kingston
Date of birth	December 3, 1980 (1980-12-03) (age 29)
Place of birth	Accra, Ghana
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position	right midfielder/right winger
Club information
Current club	Hearts
Number	10
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1999-2001 2000 2001-2003 2003 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2007 2006 2007 2007-	Great Olympics → Al-Ittihad (loan) Hearts of Oak Maccabi Ahi Nazareth Hapoel Tel Aviv Krylia Sovetov Samara Terek Grozny → Lokomotiv Moscow (loan) → Hearts (loan) Hearts	00 (0) 24 (2) 15 (0) 11 (0) 12 (0) 10 (1) 51 (9)
National team2
2002-	Ghana	41 (6)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 3 November, 2009. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 28 June, 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Laryea "Larry" Kingston (born as Laryea Kingson later adopting the surname Kingston, due to an error by Ghanaian passport officials - 3 December 1980 in Accra, Ghana) is a Ghanaian football player who currently plays for Scottish Premier League club Hearts as either an right midfielder or right winger.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Early career

Kingston started his career with local side Great Olympics, whom he joined aged 16, before moving to Libyan side Al-Ittihad in 2000, on a loan deal. However, after only 4 months of this arrangement he returned to Accra, unhappy at his treatment in Tripoli, joining one of Ghana's traditional "Big Two", Hearts of Oak, in 2001. Two years later he moved to Israel, initially with Maccabi Ahi Nazareth. After two Toto Cup matches, Maccabi decided not to retain him and he was signed by Hapoel Tel Aviv, where he played until 2004.

[edit] Move to Russia

Russia was Kingston's next destination, where he joined Krylia Sovetov Samara, helping them to third place in the Russian Premier League in his first season. Krylia Sovetov also reached the Cup final that year but were surprisingly defeated 1-0 by Terek Grozny in Moscow. Kingston joined Terek half way through the 2005 season but was unable to help them avoid a bottom-placed finish and relegation from the top flight into the First Division.

Several of Terek's higher-profile players left as a result of this demotion, and Kingston joined Lokomotiv Moscow on loan for the 2006 season. He was banned for 6 matches in July 2006 for deliberately injuring FC Dinamo Moscow defender Leandro Fernández.^[1]

When Terek failed to secure a return to the Premier League, Kingston appeared set for a permanent departure from the Chechen side. Despite an approach from Bolton Wanderers and rumoured interest from Newcastle United and Fulham, Kingston joined Hearts on 25 January 2007 on an initial six-month loan deal.^[2] Hearts also negotiated the option to sign him permanently for a further three years at the initial contract's end and exercised this option on 6 June 2007, for a pre-agreed fee of £500,000.

^[3]

[edit] International career

Well known as an uncompromising and hard-working player by fellow professionals, Kingston's determined style has occasionally caused him problems, most notably when representing the Ghanaian national side at the 2006 African Cup of Nations, when he was sent off during Ghana's 1-0 victory over Senegal following an altercation with Habib Beye.^[4] Both players subsequently received unprecedented 4-match suspensions, which resultantly ruled Kingston out of contention for the Ghana squad for 2006 World Cup.^[5]

Kingston returned to prominence for the Black Stars in February 2007 though, scoring in their 4-1 victory over Nigeria in London.^[6]

[edit] Privates

Kingston's elder brother, Richard Kingson, is also a professional footballer, who played in goal in all four of Ghana's matches at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.^[7] He currently plays for Wigan Athletic.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Laryea Kingston career stats at Soccerbase
• Appearances at londonhearts.com
• Web Archive of Statistics at KLISF.info
• Kingston begs Gordon to stay at Hearts stv interview, 26 June 2007.

v • d • e Ghana squad – 2004 Summer Olympics 1 Owu • 2 Lamine • 3 B. Gyan • 4 Osei • 5 Mensah • 6 Pappoe • 7 Yahuza • 8 Taylor • 9 Poku • 10 Appiah • 11 Villars • 12 A. Gyan • 13 Pimpong • 14 Paintsil • 15 Coleman • 16 Tiero • 17 Chibsah • 18 Alhassan • Coach: Barreto

v • d • e Ghana squad – 2006 Africa Cup of Nations 1 Adjei • 2 Ansah • 3 Agyemang • 4 Kuffour • 5 Mensah • 6 Pappoe • 7 Kingston • 8 Sarpei • 9 Tagoe • 10 Appiah • 11 Dickoh • 12 Attram • 13 Frimpong • 14 Amoah • 15 Paintsil • 16 Owu • 17 Edusei • 18 Yakubu • 19 Mohammed • 20 Adamu • 21 Issah • 22 McCarthy • 23 Dramani • Coach: Dujković

v • d • e Ghana squad – 2008 Africa Cup of Nations Third Place 1 Adjei • 2 Sarpei • 3 A. Gyan • 4 Paintsil • 5 Mensah • 6 Annan • 7 Kingston • 8 Essien • 9 Agogo • 10 Asamoah • 11 Muntari • 12 Ayew • 13 B. Gyan • 14 Kumordzi • 15 Barusso • 16 Fatawu Dauda • 17 Asare • 18 Addo • 19 Shilla • 20 Owusu-Abeyie • 21 Afful • 22 Kingson • 23 Dramani • Coach: Le Roy