{"id":404185,"date":"2024-06-18T22:22:07","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T22:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=404185"},"modified":"2024-06-18T23:05:18","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T23:05:18","slug":"ransford-gyan-named-2023-24-gatorade-national-boys-soccer-player-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=404185","title":{"rendered":"Ransford Gyan named 2023-24 Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ransford Gyan&#8217;s remarkable journey from Ghana to perennial soccer power St. Benedict\u2019s Prep (Newark, N.J.) added another impressive accolade to the story this week, with the dynamic midfielder being named 2023-24 Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>The surprise announcement came while Gyan competed in a youth soccer tournament in Tennessee, with his coaches and teammates joining in on the impressive achievement. To help add to the trophy celebration, USMNT star Christian Pulisic gave the next-generation talent a congratulatory call.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_101524451\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101524451\" class=\"wp-image-101524451 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-18-at-3.01.06\u202fPM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1144\" height=\"1430\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-101524451\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo: Joe Greer, Courtesy of Gatorade)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">It&#8217;s back-to-back Player of the Year nods for Gyan, who adds his name again to an impressive list of past winners\u2014an all-star roster that has combined<\/span> <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">for over 12 National Championships and includes 13 MLS first-round draft picks.<\/span><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And the selection over the half a million other student-athletes who play high school boys&#8217; soccer, was more than well-deserved.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cR<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">ansford Gyan is one of the most talented players to emerge from the high school soccer arena in the past decade,<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201d noted<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0J.R. Eskilson, National Analyst for <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"http:\/\/url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com\/s\/WKtbCv2xPoUAVRDQ8soo1_8?domain=prepsoccer.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">PrepSoccer.com<\/span><\/a> <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">in<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> a statement. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cA<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> wizard with the ball at his feet, Gyan has that rare ability to create chances for his team in the blink of an eye. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Lightning <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">quick and<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> sublimely skillful, <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">he does<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> things on a soccer pitch <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">comparable to<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> what you see <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">at the professional level<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span> <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Playing with a target on his back all season as the reigning Gatorade Boys Soccer National Player of the Year, Gyan raised his game <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">and found<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> multiple ways to help his team win <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">even<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> though he was regularly surrounded by a handful of defenders.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> The left-footed maestro delivered a masterpiece performance in his final high school season.<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Gyan was equally valuable outside the lines. He was involved with everything from volunteering on behalf of Newark&#8217;s St. Mary&#8217;s Parish Toussaint Food Pantry to coaching young athletes in association with the CSA Newark Roots Program\u2014all while maintaining a 3.68 GPA in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s that type of overall resume that caught the attention of Gatorade, with Gatorade president and general manager Michael Del Pozzo noting that &#8220;Ransford won the top award in high school sports because he is someone who is a leader in all facets of his life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s next on the journey?<\/p>\n<p>The soccer standout now heads off to <a href=\"https:\/\/clemsonwire.usatoday.com\/\">Clemson,<\/a> where he&#8217;ll help build on a nationally ranked Tigers squad that finished runner-up in this year&#8217;s ACC Championship.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_101524456\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101524456\" class=\"wp-image-101524456 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-18-at-3.01.20\u202fPM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"950\" height=\"1366\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-101524456\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo: Joe Greer, Courtesy of Gatorade)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"related shortcode shortcode--related\">\n<h2 class=\"related__header\">Related<\/h2>\n<p><a class=\"block block--related\" href=\"https:\/\/usatodayhss.com\/2024\/eolk-plays-soccer-colorado-video\" data-track=\"usatodayhss-in-article-related-curated\"><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"block__title\">Watch: An elk starts playing soccer in Colorado with two boys (and isn&#039;t half bad)<\/h2>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"block block--related\" href=\"https:\/\/usatodayhss.com\/2024\/carmel-indiana-has-14-swimmers-in-olympic-qualifiers\" data-track=\"usatodayhss-in-article-related-curated\"><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"block__title\">Welcome to SwimCity, USA: Carmel, Indiana has 14 swimmers in the Olympic qualifiers<\/h2>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"block block--related\" href=\"https:\/\/usatodayhss.com\/2024\/2023-24-gatorade-national-softball-player-of-the-year-addisen-fisher-ucla-commit\" data-track=\"usatodayhss-in-article-related-curated\"><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"block__title\">Addisen Fisher named 2023-24 Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year<\/h2>\n<p><\/a><\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The Clemson Tiger commit goes back to back!<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":404187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=404185"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404200,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404185\/revisions\/404200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/404187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=404185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=404185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=404185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}