Vanuatu United have officially moved on from Lars Hopp, confirming the German coach will not continue with the club for the second season of the OFC Pro League and appointing former Auckland City boss Albert Riera as part of a new technical direction for 2027.
The decision brings a formal end to Hopp’s time with the first professional club from Vanuatu after an inaugural campaign in which the Chiefs emerged as one of the strongest Pacific Island sides in the new competition. Vanuatu United reached the semi-finals before eventually falling 4-0 to South Melbourne, completing an encouraging first year in professional football.
In announcing the change, Vanuatu United explained that the decision followed planning between the club and the Vanuatu Football Federation, with the intention of ensuring “full alignment across the national pathway.” The wording is significant, with the structure of Vanuatu United increasingly being connected to the wider development of football in the country rather than operating only as an independent professional club.
Hopp leaves with a considerable legacy from his relatively short period in Vanuatu. Initially appointed to lead both Vanuatu United and the national team, he guided the national side to the 2025 MSG Prime Minister’s Cup, defeating Papua New Guinea on penalties in the final and delivering Vanuatu its first Melanesian title since 1990. He then took many of the same players into the professional environment with Vanuatu United and eventually led the club into the OFC Pro League semi-finals.
However, signs that the relationship was approaching its end had already appeared. Hopp was still in charge of the national team for the June international series against Fiji, but Richard Iwai replaced him ahead of Vanuatu’s 2026 MSG Prime Minister’s Cup campaign. His absence was also noticeable when Vanuatu United finally played on home soil against Central Coast Mariners in September, with goalkeeper Matthew Acton taking charge from the technical area instead. The club had not publicly explained Hopp’s absence at the time.
It was another unusual chapter in a relationship that had already come close to ending much earlier. Hopp initially announced his intention to resign in January, alongside then-general manager Christian Happel, because of differences over the future direction of the club. He later withdrew that resignation and remained in charge throughout the inaugural OFC Pro League season.
The man selected to lead the next phase is one of the most decorated coaches in modern Oceania club football.
Albert Riera arrives with a remarkable record at Auckland City. The Barcelona-born coach led the Navy Blues to three consecutive OFC Champions League titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024, while also winning New Zealand national honours and the Chatham Cup during his time in charge. His connection with Auckland City goes considerably deeper: as a midfielder, Riera spent much of his playing career at Kiwitea Street and won four OFC Champions League titles with the club, either side of a spell in the A-League with Wellington Phoenix.
Importantly for Vanuatu United, this will not be Riera’s first experience of football in the country. After leaving Auckland City in early 2025, he took charge of Galaxy FC and immediately delivered the 2024–25 VFF Champions League title, with Galaxy defeating M3 United 2-1 after extra time in the final. That period gave him direct experience with Ni-Vanuatu players, local football structures and the particular environment the country’s new professional club is trying to build upon.
Riera subsequently returned to New Zealand to coach Christchurch United in 2026, although that spell ended in August following a difficult Southern League campaign. His appointment by Vanuatu United therefore represents both a return to the Pacific nation and an opportunity to re-establish himself at professional level in a competition he knows well from the opposite side of Oceania football.
Riera will work alongside VFF Technical Director Emerson Alcântara, another important element of the new structure. Vanuatu United say the pair will help establish a more unified pathway between the professional club and Vanuatu football as a whole, describing the objective as a “new, united direction for the national pathway” with a clearer Vanuatu identity.
That may ultimately be the most important element of the change. Hopp helped establish Vanuatu United and demonstrated during the inaugural season that a predominantly Ni-Vanuatu squad could compete deep into the OFC Pro League. Riera now inherits that foundation with considerably more experience of winning Oceania’s major club competition — and with previous knowledge of the domestic game in Vanuatu itself.
For Vanuatu United, the second OFC Pro League season will therefore begin with a different coach but an even stronger emphasis on connecting the country’s professional project with its wider football pathway.
The Hopp era produced Vanuatu’s first regional national-team title in 25 years and an OFC Pro League semi-final. The task for Riera will be to turn that promising beginning into the next stage of Vanuatu United’s development.
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