Aaron Clapham is not a football player anymore. The 33-year-old midfielder announced his retirement a few hours ago. He spent most of his career playing in New Zealand. He also played in Australia and United States.
“A life times worth of highs and lows. Experiences money cant buy. Friends for life. It is with a deep sense of gratitude I retire from playing this great game. For the numerous people who helped along the way, thank you! To my parents, sister, and wife, thank you the most!” – said Calpham on his official Twitter account.
Clapham playing for New Zealand National Football Team
Clapham represented New Zealand National Football Team for 14 times and he was part of All Whites squad that played 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. He also represented Team Wellington in 2018 FIFA Club World Cup scoring a goal in the 3-3 draw against Al-Ain from United Arab Emirates.
The Kurukuru, as the Solomon Islands national futsal team is known, is certainly the most successful national futsal team in Oceania; Solomon Islands will be competing in the FIFA Futsal World Cup for the fourth consecutive year in 2021, having qualified for the world tournament after winning the OFC Futsal Nations Cup in 2019 after defeating New Zealand in the grand final.
Solomon Islands won six of the seven OFC Nations Cup tournaments, showing their dominance of futsal in Oceania. The first step into this golden era began in 2008, when Solomon Islands won their first competition at regional level and qualified for the 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup in Brazil. The likes such as Micah Lea’alafa, Elliot Ragomo and Jack Wetney shone in the Brazilian country and carried the Solomon Islands flag.
The experience for the Kurukuru was certainly at the highest level: host Brazil, the most successful national team in futsal, was drawn in Solomon Islands group. Russia, Japan and Cuba were the other three opponents of the Oceanians in the group stage of their first appearance at a FIFA Futsal World Cup.
The Solomon Islanders’ first game was against Cuba; surprisingly, a 18-year-old Elliot Ragomo scored in the first minute of the game and put his nation ahead against the Caribbeans. It was the Solomon Islands’ first ever goal at a FIFA Futsal World Cup. Despite all the Oceanians’ efforts, the more experienced Cuban side recovered in the game and ended up winning by 10-2. The same Ragomo, who scored the first historic Solomon Islands goal, added another in the closing stages of the game.
Elliot Ragomo (right) in 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup in Brazil – Teamfoto
The second match was the most important for the Solomon Islands, against whom they had to play in Brazil, in the Brazilian capital and, above all, against the best futsal player of all time: Falcão. No one really expected the Pacific Islanders to give the Brazilians any kind of fight, Falcão scored six times and gave the newcomers to the tournament no chance. The final score of 21-0 reflected the difference between the two sides, but it was a fantastic show for the Oceanians. Despite the huge difference between the two sides, Solomon Islands created some goalscoring chances, but unfortunately a historic goal was not scored. At the end of the game, Falcão was surrounded by Solomon Islands players to sign autographs and take photos – a memorable moment.
Falcão against Solomon Islands’ James Egeta
Solomon Islands played their best game in the tournament against Japan, their third opponent in the group. The Asians got off to a better start and scored the first three goals of the match, but an own goal from Yoshifumi Maeda and another quick goal for the Pacific Islanders from Ron Ginio gave Solomon Islands plenty of hope of getting back into the game. Much to the chagrin of the OFC representatives, Japan scored a fourth goal and regained control of the game, ending the match with a 7-2 win in favour of the Japanese.
The final match of the Solomon Islanders in the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Brazil was against Russia, a very strong side that needed a win to confirm their second place in the group. This match was unfortunately for the Pacific Islanders their worst defensive performance – Solomon Islands conceded a total of 31 goals in the match. A 18-year old Jack Wetney and a 17-year old Micah Lea’alafa scored the only two goals of Solomon Islands in the game.
Ron Ginio celebrates his goal against Japan
Solomon Islands ended the competition with six goals scored and 69 conceded, with a goal difference of -63 – the worst campaign of all 20 national teams participating in the competition. However, as we already know, this was only the beginning of Solomon Islands’ adventure on the world futsal stage – they took part in two other FIFA Futsal World Cups and have already recorded a win over Guatemala at the 2012 edition in Thailand.
The Kurukuru‘s debut on the world stage has shown that their talented young players have much to look forward to in the coming years – the team has already proved as they have qualified for the next three FIFA Futsal World Cups and Oceania fans of the sport expect them to continue to represent the region as well as they did in the past in the next World Cup to take place in Lithuania in the next year.
The 2019-20 Ligue 1 VINI was officially cancelled and AS Pirae was crowned the league’s champion and booked a spot in 2021 OFC Champions League alongside runners-up AS Vénus while third-placed AS Tiare Tahiti qualified for 2020-21 French Cup’s seventh round.
However the biggest news comes from the bottom of the table. AS Central Sport and AS Jeunes Tahitiens were the ninth and tenth-placed teams respectivelly and they were supposed to be relegated for Ligue 2, but it is not going to happen.
As the local leagues were cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Fédération Tahitienne de Football (FTF) decided to abolish relegation this season so both teams are confirmed in the upcoming Ligue 1 VINI’s season.
AS Central (left) and AS Jeunes Tahitiens (right) are saved from releagation
Despite relegation’s abolishment, FTF confirmed that the top two teams from Ligue 2 – AS Excelsior and AS Arue – are promoted to the top-tier of Tahitian football which means that the next season of Ligue 1 VINI will count on twelve teams.
It is probable that the next season will be a bit different from the others. Ligue 1 VINI is usually contested by ten clubs and with each time facing each other four times throughout the championship. Let’s wait and see how it is going to be in 2020-21.
Tommy Smith is not a Sunderland AFC player anymore. The English club confirmed that the 30-year-old defender has left the club following the expiration of his short-term contract signed in last February.
Smith returned to England this year after spending two years with Colorado Rapids from Major League Soccer (United States of America). Now the Kiwi defender is officially a free agent and he is able to sign with a new club.
Smith leaves the club without playing a official match. The experient defender represented the New Zealand National Football Team in 38 opportunities with two goals scored.
After spending some years playing for Suva, Ivan Kumar left the team. The 23-year-old player has joined South Auckland Rangers AFC to play in New Zealand’s winter football season.
Kumar is not the only Fijian who left the country to play the upcoming winter season in New Zealand. There are six other players from Fiji who joined Manukau United as it was previously reported in this website.
Kumar playing for Fiji U23 National Team. Source: OFC Media
Kumar represented played all Fiji’s five matches in the OFC Olympic Qualifiers held last year and now he has a new challenge playing abroad. South Auckland Rangers AFC play in the AFF/NFF Men’s Conference League promoted by the Northern Football Federation.
The lack of competition has been a problem for most Oceania national football teams for several years; the Cook Islands are at the top of the list when it comes to the inactivity of their men’s senior national team – without proper exposure, football can not develop anywhere.
The last time Cook Islands national team played an official football match was in September 4th, 2015 – almost five years ago – against American Samoa, in a heartbreaking 2-0 defeat at 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification. In this same competition, the Cook Islanders played against Tonga and Samoa, winning both matches by 3-0 and 1-0 respectively. Taylor Saghabi is the man responsible for scoring the last goal of Cook Island at international stage – the Australian-based player also scored all other three goals of his national team in that competition.
OFC Media
It is known that the Cook Islands national team has made a trip to New Zealand in 2019 to play a few friendly matches against local clubs. The local media or the Cook Islands Football Association did not disclose exactly which teams the Cook Islands were playing against, but the Oceania Football Center is aware that Manukau United and Bucklands Beach AFC were opponents to the national team in two friendly matches. Unfortunately, the results of all matches were not published.
Unlike the men’s national team, the Cook Islands women’s team played in Samoa for the last edition of the Pacific Games in 2019 and had a fantastic campaign, finishing 4th after a 3-1 defeat in the bronze medal game against Fiji. During the competition, the Cook Islands beat Tahiti, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu before losing 5-1 to Papua New Guinea in one of the semi-finals. CIFA made a huge effort to recruit Dutch coach Judith Kuipers as head coach for the women’s national team.
Unfortunately for football in Oceania, the lack of official matches and friendly matches for most OFC national teams is a chronic problem: the same Cook Islands, for example, only played in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers before the same qualifying tournament for the 2018 FIFA World Cup – a gap of almost four years without an official match for the men’s national team. The drought of football matches might be close to an end for Cook Islands as the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifirs will be starting this year as it is scheduled by OFC.
In order to continue the development process of football in the Pacific, it is very important that the local football associations cooperate with the football confederation and FIFA. The lack of support that most of these local associations receive from the major football organizations could be a real problem, but this is not only a financial issue: workshops, training and know-how are a very important part of the change process of this disappointing lack of competitiveness scenario.
Wellington Phoenix is enjoying a very good season so far in the Australian top-tier Hyundai A-League, the New Zealand-based club is ranked 3rd in the standings in one of their best campaigns in the league history. If COVID-19 did not hit the world and forced many sports even to be put on hold, the A-League season would be already finished, but as the reality tells Phoenix and the all other ten clubs in the league are waiting the return of the competitions that might be not so far.
Despite the good moment, thanks to the good performances of players such as Liberato Cacace, Ulises Dávila and David Ball, there is much discussion in Phoenix’s social media forums about a particular player who has made history for the club in the past: Roy Krishna. The Fijian attacker is Wellington Phoenix’s top scorer of all time, and his last season for the club was formidable – Krishna was the A-League’s golden boot and also the Johnny Warren medal, the prize awarded to the best player of the season.
Krishna is a Wellington Phoenix legend – RNZ
After a superb season for Indian club ATK at Indian Super League that ended up with Krishna’s team as champions, the Fijian is going to be a free player in the football market by the end of May. This the topic of the discussion about Krishna among Phoenix fans; whether the player would be a good addition to the squad or not – if the team really needs him as they are doing extremely well in the season so far. The majority of the fans would want to the Fijian Flyer back to Wellington, but there are concerns about the salary cap to add the player to the squad. The now 32-year star striker is attracting many interest in the market and if Phoenix really want their legend back they might need to be quick.
Krishna also holds New Zealand citizenship, which allows Phoenix to register the attacker as a local player without forcing the club to use a slot of foreign players to add the Fijian international to the squad – something that can count in Krishna’s favour if Phoenix wants to get the player back on the team.
Roy Krishna certainly has a deep feeling for Phoenix; the player spent 5 years with club, scoring 51 goals in 122 matches. The history the player has with the Nix is something very important for Krishna – something that may count on Phoenix favour if the club decide to try signing him back -, but it is also known the player is receiving much attention in the market and many other clubs are already approaching the player for a potential move.
Despite being a young footballer, Bong Kalo has a lot to tell about his career in the sport. The 23-year-old midfielder felt the taste of European football three years ago when he had the opportunity to sign with a club from Europe.
Bong Kalo was Vanuatu’s captain in the 2017 FIFA U20 World Cup held in South Korea and he was very impressive in the tournament with dribbles, passes and goals. His country lost all three matches but Kalo wrote his name in football’s history by scoring three goals in the tournament – including a marvelous free kick goal against Germany. You can watch the goals by clicking here.
Bong Kalo scored three goals in three matches in the 2017 FIFA U20 World Cup
His great level in the World Cup called the attention of lots of scouters and the Ni-Vanuatu midfielder was linked with many clubs from Europe, including German powerhouse Borussia Dortmund.
In August 2017, he arrived in Madrid for trials with Leganés, a football club that currently plays La Liga, the top-tier of Spanish football. During the trial period he was gifted with a pair of boots sponsored by Cristiano Ronaldo. Unfortunately he did not sign with the Pepineros but it was not the end of the dream.
Later in the month Kalo and Moise Poida – who was accompanying him in the trip – travelled to Switzerland and then the dream finally came true: Bong Kalo was a football player in Europe. He signed a one-year contract with FC Ascona from Swiss fifth tier.
Kalo (left) signing a contract with FC Ascona from Switzerland.
Kalo’s stint in Switzerland was shorter than expected. He left the team after three months despite being one of the best players in the squad. He played eight official matches and scored one goal in the 2. Liga Interregional.
After his experience in Europe he went back to Vanuatu and played 2018 OFC Champions League for Nalkutan. Since then he has been playing for Oceanian clubs. He is currently attached to Galaxy FC from his homeland.
Manukau United is a very relevant team when it comes to winter football season in New Zealand. Currently in the Lotto NRFL Premier Men’s League – the top-tier of winter football in Auckland’s region – they are going to count on foreign power for this season, specially on Fijian power.
Rakula (middle) and Sami (right) celebrating a goal. Source: Manukau United Media
The biggest doubt is on goalkeeper Mohammed Alam. As it was previously reported in this website, he is a police officer in his country and he had to go back to Fiji in order to get an official permission to move away from work to play abroad.
Multiculturalism is Manukau’s main ethos. Actually, South Auckland region in general is extremely multicultural. Football fans from Fiji now have a good team to support in New Zealand’s winter football season.
AS Tiare Tahiti will be the Tahitian representant in the 2020-21 French Cup. They qualified for the biggest football cup in the world after finishing the 2019-20 Ligue 1 VINI in the third position.
The spot in the French Cup’s seventh round is usually awarded to Tahitian Cup champion. However the football season was cancelled in the French Polynesia so the local cup did not have a winner so the spot was given to the third-placed team in the local league.
The Coupe de France count on football clubs from the French overseas departments and territories – Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Réunion, Saint Martin and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
Oceania Football Center 