Tuvalu international Jason Alama will arrive in the Netherlands on October 29 as the defender prepares for a two-week opportunity with Dutch professional club VVV-Venlo.
The latest information was confirmed directly to Oceania Football Center by Tuvalu Islands Football Association General Secretary and Technical Director Michiel van der Werf.
“Jason will arrive in the Netherlands on the 29th this month,” Van der Werf told OFCe.
Alama is expected to spend two weeks in Venlo and join VVV-Venlo’s development setup during his stay. The opportunity had previously been announced by Van der Werf, who described the period in the Netherlands as an internship in which the Tuvalu international would join the club’s U23 group.
For a player representing one of Oceania’s smallest football nations, the experience will provide valuable exposure to a professional European environment.
The 23-year-old has built his senior career in New Zealand and currently represents Western Springs AFC. He joined the Auckland club for the 2026 season after several years with West Coast Rangers and has been competing in the Dettol Northern League.
The competition forms part of New Zealand’s National League system, the country’s top level of domestic football. Alama has featured regularly at that level and also found the net for Western Springs in their 4-3 victory over Bay Olympic earlier this season.
His development in New Zealand has been a long process. Alama came through the Waitakere football environment, representing Waitakere City and appearing in the National Youth League with Waitakere United before establishing himself in senior football. He later became a regular for West Coast Rangers, competing in the Northern League across several seasons before moving to Western Springs.
Those years in New Zealand also helped Alama establish himself as an important overseas-based option for Tuvalu.
The defender represented his country at the 2023 Pacific Games in Solomon Islands, featuring against Vanuatu, Tonga and the Northern Mariana Islands. Tuvalu ended the tournament with consecutive victories, defeating Tonga 4-0 before recording a 4-1 win over the Northern Mariana Islands.
Alama has also represented Tuvalu in futsal. He was part of the squad that returned to the OFC Futsal Men’s Cup in Fiji in 2025 after a 14-year absence from the competition, facing some of the strongest futsal nations in the Pacific.
His next international experience will now come in European club football.
VVV-Venlo compete in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, and have a youth development structure providing a pathway towards the professional first team. Alama’s two weeks at the club will therefore give him the chance to experience a professional Dutch football environment after several seasons competing at the highest domestic level in New Zealand.
There is also some history connecting Tuvaluan football with the Netherlands. Internationals Alopua Petoa and Vaisua Liva spent time with Brabantia in Eindhoven in 2012, during a period in which former Netherlands U21 coach Foppe de Haan was involved with Tuvalu. The Tuvalu national team subsequently completed an extended tour of the Netherlands in 2013.
More than a decade later, Alama will follow another Dutch pathway, this time arriving with several years of senior football experience in New Zealand behind him.
Tuvalu remains an associate member of the Oceania Football Confederation rather than a FIFA member, limiting the number of international opportunities available to its players compared with footballers representing the region’s FIFA-affiliated nations. Individual opportunities abroad consequently carry additional importance for the development and visibility of Tuvaluan football.
For now, the VVV-Venlo opportunity should not be described as a formal transfer trial or as negotiations over a professional contract. No such development has been announced. What is confirmed is that Alama will arrive in the Netherlands on October 29 for the planned two-week period with the Venlo club.
For the Tuvalu international, it represents another significant step in a career that has taken him from the New Zealand domestic game to the opportunity to experience football inside a Dutch professional club.
The October 29 confirmation should definitely be in the lead, because it transforms the piece from a general article about an announced opportunity into an actual update obtained by OFCe. I also like using Michiel’s message as the article’s only direct quote: it’s short, exclusive and says exactly what we need without trying to manufacture more importance from it.
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