Still Playing at 43, Henry Fa’arodo Continues to Shape Solomon Islands Football

At 43, Henry Fa’arodo remains an active figure on the pitch in Solomon Islands football, more than two decades after establishing himself as one of the country’s most prominent players.

The former Solomon Islands captain has been playing for SOSA FC since the beginning of the 2026 SIFF Super League season, continuing his career in the country’s top domestic competition. At the same time, however, Fa’arodo has taken on an increasingly important role away from his own playing career, helping prepare the generation expected to carry Solomon Islands football forward.

Fa’arodo is currently the head coach of the SIFF National Academy and was also in charge of the Solomon Islands side at the 2026 OFC U-16 Men’s Championship in Papua New Guinea.

That campaign produced another significant achievement in his long association with the national game. Solomon Islands defeated hosts Papua New Guinea on penalties in the third-place playoff to secure qualification for the 2027 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar.

The result means Solomon Islands will return to the U-17 World Cup for only the second time, following their previous appearance in 2019. For Fa’arodo, it represented a new kind of international success after spending much of his career representing the country himself.

His involvement in developing young players has been growing for several years. Fa’arodo returned home to take charge of the SIFF National Academy in 2024 after previously working in youth development in New Zealand.

Speaking following his appointment, the former midfielder made clear what he hoped to achieve in the role.

“It’s a great opportunity to give back to the next generation of players, building their pathway in football,” Fa’arodo told SIFF Media at the time.

Two years later, some of those ambitions are already beginning to translate into international results.

Yet Fa’arodo has not completely moved from player to coach.

His appearances for SOSA in the current Super League season mean players beginning their careers in Solomon Islands football can still find themselves sharing the field with someone who was already representing the national team before many of them were born.

Fa’arodo made his senior international debut during the 2002 OFC Nations Cup and went on to become one of the defining Solomon Islands players of his generation. SIFF has described him as the country’s most-capped former international.

His career also took him well beyond the Solomon Islands.

In 2005, Fa’arodo joined Perth Glory and became the first Pacific Islander to play professionally in Australia’s newly established A-League, an important milestone at a time when professional opportunities for players from the Pacific were considerably more limited.

He would also spend considerable periods of his career in Australia and New Zealand while remaining a regular presence for Solomon Islands internationally.

Another of his greatest achievements came with Papua New Guinea’s Hekari United. Fa’arodo was part of the team that stunned the region by winning the 2010 OFC Champions League, becoming the first club from outside Australia and New Zealand to win Oceania’s premier club competition.

The triumph took Hekari to the 2010 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, where Fa’arodo and several other Pacific Island players were given the opportunity to compete on the global club stage.

More than 15 years after that historic campaign, Fa’arodo remains involved in top-level domestic football.

What has changed is the responsibility surrounding him.

The player who once represented a generation of Solomon Islanders seeking opportunities abroad is now directly involved in preparing another generation for their own international challenges. His U16 side’s qualification for Qatar 2027 has given some of the country’s most promising young players the opportunity to experience a FIFA tournament at an early stage of their careers.

At the same time, Fa’arodo continues to lace up his boots for SOSA.

Few careers in Oceania football have managed to connect so many different eras of the game. From the Solomon Islands national team and professional football in Australia, to an OFC Champions League title and the FIFA Club World Cup, Fa’arodo has experienced pathways that the players now under his guidance will hope to follow.

At 43, he is still following one of those pathways himself — as a player in the SIFF Super League — while helping create the next ones.