Tahiti: a great football generation to come

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The year 2013 was special for Tahiti and for the people of French Polynesia, the Tahiti team came to Brazil to compete at the FIFA Confederations Cup. For that, Toa Aito made history by winning the 2012 OFC Nations Cup by surpassing Solomon Islands’ hosts at the semifinal and beating rivals New Caledonia in the grand final.

That generation led by Eddy Etaeta had names like brothers Lorenzo Tehau, Jonathan Tehau and Alvin Tehau, – and also Teaonui Tehau, Nicolas Vallar, Mickael Roche, Steevy Chong Hue etc. That is surely one of the best generations of the history of Tahiti football.

After the OFC U-17 championship came to an end Tahiti failed to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, but in compensation can get a glimpse of what may be the future of the national team. Names like Titouan Guillemant, Keanan Faure, Argan Clodic-Boucher and Vaitea Seguy have made their mark in Fiji.

Vaitea Seguy showed himself to be a true organizer in the midfield, always dictating the rhythm of the team and being tough on the opponent in the defensive half. His goal against Fiji at the third-place match was certainly one of the most beautiful of the championship.

Titouan Guillemant will surely be in the Tahitian football news for the next years; the AS Tefana striker finished the OFC U-17 Championship as one of the top-scorers, scoring in every match. His runs from the right into the back of the defense surprised all defenses during the competition.

Argan Clodic-Boucher stopped everything he could, conceding only two goals, Tahiti had the best defense of the championship, much due to the performance of the Paris 13 Atletico goalkeeper who is another product of the excellent school of Tahitian goalkeepers that has names like Anapa Debruyne, Teave Teamotuaitau, Keahinui Heinis, Moana Pito and also Camile Giselle goalkeeper of the Tahitian women’s national team who plays professionally in France.

Keanan Faure dropped a bit in performance from the start to the end of tournament but that did not stop him from being elected by OFC best XI of the championship. A very good player on 1v1 situations and with passes that break defensive lines.

Other names also deserve to be highlighted such as the right-back Kanoa Barsinas – who showed to have excellent passing skills – and the midfielder Tiahiti Colombani who is only 14 years-old and already scored in two matches in the tournament.

We will probably see a lot of these youngsters in action next year at the OFC U-19 Championship and later in the national team. Those compose a group of very good young players – diamonds that Tahitian football need to cut.