Ranti Martins

Nigeria & Ghana

Martins as a teenager went to Anwar-L-Islam College in Agege, Lagos where he played for the football club in the Principal Cup and the Shell Cup. He then moved to Ghana where he joined Asante Kotoko Football Academy. He stayed at the Academy till 2004 before moving to King Faisal Babes in the Ghana Premier League.

Dempo

In 2004 Martins signed for Dempo S.C. of the National Football League. His first tournament was the 2004 Federation Cup which Dempo won. After playing his first season with Dempo during the 2004–05 Martins finished the season as the 2nd top scorer at 15 goals, behind Dudu Omagbemi who had 21 goals. He did however lead Dempo to the championship that very season as well. Martins made his debut in the AFC Cup during the 2005 version of the cup against Al Ahed of Lebanon on 9 March 2005. Dempo lost the match 0–1. The next season after the 2005–06 season Dempo finished in 5th place but Martins himself finished as the league top scorer with 13 goals. He also scored 2 goals during the 2006 AFC Cup against Al-Nasr from Oman and FC Merw of Turkmenistan. Both matches ended 1–3 and 2–2 respectively. The next season Ranti Martins finished as joint top scorer with Odafe Onyeka Okolie with 16 goals. Martins then became one of the top scorers in the first season of the newly started I-League in 2007–08 when he scored 12 goals throughout the whole season, only ten goals behind the top scorer Odafe Onyeka Okolie, and tied with Somalian Mboyo…

Martins, despite playing in the Indian I-League, believes that he has what it takes to play for his birth country Nigeria. According to Martins he had a chance to play for the Nigerian U20s but AFC Cup commitments and the Dempo president failing to tell Martins on time stopped that from happening. Martins also said that at one point an official from the Nigeria Football Federation arrived in India to watch him play a match and that he would be watching Martins. Martins also hit back at the question of how he would get a call-up if he was playing in the Indian league, a league considered lower standard for the Nigeria national team, by saying "I know that many people will begin to say that what is in India league, but I want to say here that the league in India is very strong. It is stronger than what we have in Nigeria because it is improving every season. More so, I want the handlers of the national team to look at the quality of the individuals and not where they play. I know my quality as a striker and I want the coaches, particularly Stephen Keshi to give an opportunity to prove myself. I won't disappoint him."

Chance to play for Ghana

In 2003, Martins was using a Ghanaian passport from which his agent gave him and at one point he was offered the chance to join the Ghana U17s for the 2005 African U-17 Championship qualifiers. However Martins rejected the offer due to his loyalty towards Nigeria. Otherwise he might have been a Ghanaian International…

As of match played 14 March 2016

Dempo

National Football League: 2004–05, 2006–07; runner-up: 2003–04 I-League: 2007–08, 2009–10, 2011–12 Federation Cup: 2004 Durand Cup: 2006 Prayag United

IFA Shield: 2013 Individual

National Football League India Golden Boot: 2005–06 I-League Golden Boot: 2010–11, 2011–12 2012–13, 2014–15, 2015–16 I-League Best Player: 2012–13 Records

Most individual goals in a match of I-League: 7 (Dempo vs Air India in 2010–11) Maximum number of goals in one edition of I-League: 32, in 2011–12. Most goals in AFC Cup representing Indian clubs: 18