Netherlands Oceania Support Foundation reported that Solomon Airlines will sponsor the return flight between Honiara and Brisbane for both Joses Nawo and Atkin Kaua. This decreases the required funds by approximately 5,000 Solomon Dollar for each football player.
Nawo (left) and Kaua (right) are still hopeful to play in Europe
Tarxien Rainbows FC (Malta) showed some goodwill to give a few extra days to get their fundraising done before pulling back their trial invitation. Netherlands Oceania Support Foundation started a crowd funding campaign as a last resort to make it happen! You can donate by clicking here.
Roy Krishna is considered as one of the best players Fiji ever produced – by some fans the best of them all – and his 2019 proves much of his quality. He turned into the all-time top goalscorer of the Wellington Phoenix, earned the Johnny Warren medal and signed a millionaire contract with the Indian Super League side ATK, just to mention some of his achievements.
Krishna made history for the Phoenix – Sportskeeda
Krishna made a magnificent season for the Wellington Phoenix – guiding them back to the playoffs of Hyundai A-League. The Fijian scored 19 goals in the 2018/19 season for the Phoenix, being 13 in the 2019 year – also providing four assists in the year for the New Zealand side. The Fijian Flyer was the top goalscorer of the Hyundai A-League and earned the award given to the best player of the season, the Johnny Warren Medal.
Krishna with the Johnny Warren medal – FTBL
After the end of the 2018/19 season, Krishna received many offers from various club around Asia and even from the A-League. He decided to take his time to choose the next step of his career – while he represented Fiji at the Pacific Games held in Samoa.
Roy scored six goals for the Bula Boys in the competition in five games played, earning the bronze medal after beating Papua New Guinea at penalty shootout in the 3rd/4th place playoff match. The goals scored by Krishna for his national team give him the impressive record of 29 goals scored in 41 international matches played – he is just three goals away from the legend Esala Masi, who is the top goalscorer of Fiji national team with 32. Krishna also scored in a 1-0 win of Fiji against Mauritius in a friendly match on March 24th.
Roy Krishna in Pacific Games ceremony – Pacific Games
Krishna also had the honour to be the flag bearer of Fiji in the opening ceremony of the Pacific Games. Something that is a great achievement for any athlete when it comes to represent your country internationaly.
After earning the bronze medal in the Men’s Football contest as captain of his team, Krishna decided which would be his new club for the 2019/20 season. Roy, that comes from Indian heritage, wrote an emotional text in his social media as he decided to move to where his ancestors come from: he opted to move to ATK in the most important football league of India, earning around 1M USD in his new contract to represent the club from Kolkata. He came to India as the 3rd most valuable player in the league and with a superstar status to guide ATK back to an ISL title, that would be their third in the history.
Krishna celebrates one of his goals for ATK – Khel Now
His start in India could not be better: in ten games Krishna scored eight goals to keep him at the first place in the golden boot ladder of Indian Super League. Krishna also provided one assist in the run so far. ATK finished 2019 in the 2nd position in the table, just three points away Goa the first-placed team in the standings.
The 2019 of Roy Krishna was magnificent: he scored a total of 29 goals and provided 5 assists – counting his games with Wellington Phoenix, ATK and the Fiji national team. The stats prove it was the best year of the now 32-year old striker, but the milestones achieved to turn into Wellington Phoenix all-time top goalscorer (51 goals in total), the bronze medal and to be Fiji flag bearer in Pacific Games, to be awarded the best player of 2018/19 A-League season and to sign a very profitable contract in Indian Super League show the level that the boy from Macuata reached in his career.
This year was a different one for Auckland City once they did not play ISPS Handa Premiership Grand Final for the first time since 2012. However there is a player that has a lot of things to celebrate in 2019: David Browne.
The 24 years old Papua New Guinean winger had a good year in New Zealand being Auckland City’s top scorer in 2019 OFC Champions League with six goals. He was also the player with most goals scored for Navy Blues in the year as you can check the top five goal scorers below:
Nine out of his ten goals were scored in the first semester – six in the OFC Champions League and three in 2018-19 ISPS Handa Premiership so it means that he has scored just one goal in 2019-20 season so far.
Despite his lack of goals, he is an important player for Auckland City playing every single match, sometimes as starter and some other times coming from the bench.
Browne did not play for Papua New Guinea National Football Team in 2019. However he is surely one of the most important players from his country.
One of the most promising young players of Solomon Islands is hoping to achieve bigger in his career and he feels his experiences in 2019 can be instrumental for the development of his game. Charles Mani captained Solomon Islands to qualify for the FIFA U17 World Cup – the first FIFA football tournament to be played by his country – as his team finished 2nd in the last OFC U16 Championship, losing against New Zealand in the grand final after penalty shootout.
Mani in OFC U16 Championship – OFC Media
The experience to play at world stage was huge for the 17-year old forward: “It was the first time for me and for my country to be in a competition like this. I feel more experienced now – I learned a lot of things in the U17 World Cup – it will help in my footballing career“. The player also added about the atmosphere to be in a nation with so much history in the sport: “The atmosphere in Brazil was great, they are crazy football fans as we are here in Solomon Islands as well“. Solomon Islands took place in a hard group against Italy, Paraguay and the runners-up in the competition Mexico.
The experience can be superb for the Solomon Islanders, but the team still could not get any positive result – losing all three games for a big margin: “We should have done a lot better. We used just one game plan in all three matches, I felt it needed some adjustments, but It depends entirely on our coach to choose what is more suitable for the players“, mentioned Mani. The player also complained about the preparation for the tournament, saying the team had lack of international exposure in order to prepare for the competition.
Charles Mani in New Zealand at Long Bay College
After impressing in OFC U16 Championship, the forward received a scolarship in New Zealand with the football club Glenfield Rovers. As he is still an U18 player coming from a foreign country, Mani could not play for their first team of Glenfield in New Zealand – as FIFA regulations for international transfers say – so he defended the colours of Long Bay College in the School Football tournaments in the country. Mani was awarded the Most Valuable Player of the Rex Dawkins Tournament, an important award in the youth level of football in the country. “To be in New Zealand, playing in the school team, helped me a lot to prepare for the U17 World Cup“, stated the young player. Charles Mani also mentioned he will be back to New Zealand in 2020 to continue his scolarship program.
In the school break, Mani get back to his home country to defend Kossa FC in the second round of the national top-tier Telekom S-League. Mani helped the team with three goals so far in the season and feels the experienced he had in New Zealand and especialy at U17 World Cup boosted their confidence to play in the national league: “After New Zealand and the U17 World Cup held in Brazil, I learned a lot of good things. It helped a lot to improve my game and now, playing for Kossa, I feel more experienced and confident with my game“, told Mani.
Mani in Kossa FC colours – S-League Media
Mani has the talent to become the next superstar of football in his country, but he knows he has a long path to make it real – and give advices to his young generation: “For moving to the next stage I need a lot of commitment and sacrifices, so I will be able to step forward in the game – and these are advices I want to give to all young players in the country as well“.
The still 17-year old player already achieved important milestones in his career, the future will say if Charles Mani and the U17 World Cup generation will put his legacy in the pitch and put the Solomon Islands football in the next level.
The final match of 2019 year for Wellington Phoenix could really let the fans of the black and yellow side happy. Probrably the best game so far in the season for the side coached by Ufuk Talay, saw the club away from home reach the mark of 15 points in the table as they won Western United away from home. The game marked the debut goal of the youngster Callum McCowatt as Wellington Phoenix player.
It was a game to remember for many of the Phoenix fans as they beat the team coached by their former commander Mark Rudan. Rudan left Phoenix in the end of the previous season in a controversial manner, as he decided to depart from the club even having still one-year contract with the team from New Zealand. The coach said he had family commitments and needed to go back Australia – he did so, approached the spot as head coach of the newcomers in the league Western United as three ex-Wellington Phoenix players followed him to the team: Andrew Durante, Filip Kurto and Max Burgess.
The Yellow Fever made a lot of noise in Ballarat – Phoenix Media
Phoenix controlled the game since the initial minutes creating good opportunities to score. Chances wasted by Reno Piscopo and Ulises Davila gave the signals Ufuk Talay’s team was close to find the first goal of the match. It came in the final minutes of the first half as a fantastic play by the Mexican star Ulises Davila ended in a superb assist to the Englishman David Ball to just tap the ball to the nets of Filip Kurto to put Phoenix ahead.
The first half ended with a 1-0 advantage for the Nix, but just in the starting of the final part of the game the veteran striker Besart Berisha forced the Phoenix stopper Marinovic to make a sensational save to deny the home side an equalizer. Despite creating some chances, Western United could not take advantage of the quality of players as Alessandro Diamanti to level the game. The youngster Callum McCowatt – after a superb assist of Reno Piscopo – battled inside the area and could finish to the right bottom of Filip Kurto to double the advantage of Phoenix and score his first goal for the club.
McCowatt celebrates his first goal for the Nix – Phoenix Media
The introduction of the experienced striker Gary Hooper in place of Reno Piscopo gave Phoenix more firepower upfront. The striker provided a great pass to the Mexican midfielder Ulises Davila, that apporached the penalty box free of marking and just netted the left bottom of the opposition goalkeeper to make it three for the visitors.
The chance to clain a clean sheet for Phoenix was reduced to zero when Valentino Yuel finished and the captain Steven Taylor blocked the ball with his arm, allowing a penalty kick for the home in a bizarre way. Diamanti made no mistake and scored the consolation goal for the green and black side with no chance of defense for Marinovic.
Gary Hooper also scored through a fantastic header after a lapse of concentration of Western United defense, but the goal did not count as the VAR shown the striker was in an offside position. The final numbers of the game saw Phoenix keep their good momentun extending their unbeaten run to seven as they beat by 3-1 away from home Western United.
Davila celebrates his goal of number eight in the season – Phoenix Media
Wellington Phoenix will be back to the pitch in the next Saturday, as they return to Wellington to face Central Coast Mariners at 7PM NZT.
Loyalty International Football Open Under 15, also known as LIFOU U15 was played in Stade de Hnassé in Lifou, New Caledonia between 15 and 21 December. Four teams fought for the trophy in a tournament focused on developing youth soccer in OFC region.
According to early information, Vanuatu U15 was supposed to play this tournament. However they did not play and they were replaced by “Islands U15”, a team made of players that are not from the main New Caledonian island.
Melbourne Victory were the champion and Wellington Phoenix from New Zealand ended with the silver medal. New Caledonian teams ended in the last two positions.
Melbourne Victory U15 players with the LIFOU U15 trophy. Source: FTF Media
You can check all results and final standings by clicking here.
It was reported by Tahitian sources that AS Vénus legend Glenn Aitamai passed away. He was 54 years old. Formed at the AS Vénus, he was champion of Tahiti in the early 1990s before becoming captain and assistant coach of AS Vénus.
Glenn Aitamai was 54 years old. Source:
The management of the football section of as Venus also issued a press release: “Glenn was a very great AS Venus player and an exemplary captain. He won everything with the club: championship, cups… He was then a fervent supporter and a faithful friend that we will regret”
Glenn is Ricky Aitamai’s uncle. Ricky played 2013 Confederations Cup for Tahitian National Team.
After a very good start of season for Southern United scoring six goals in the ISPS Handa Premiership, the New Zealander Joel Stevens is set to leave Southern in order to approach opportunities to play in Sweden – where Stevens already played in the past season.
The 24-year old winger represented New Zealand at U20 FIFA World Cup in 2015 and also achieve continental glory with his former club Team Wellington, before departing to Sweden to pursue the development of his career. According to Southern media, the player wants to the top-tier of football in Sweden and he might be receiving trial opportunities in the upcoming transfer window to open in January, 2020.
Stevens (blue) playing for Southern United – Stuff
Stevens played in Sweden for the third-tier side Husqvarna FF and already played three times for the All Whites. The player wishes to rejoin the national team, this one of the biggest reasons the winger is looking for opportunities in Europe – in order to impress the All Whites new coach Danny Hay. Stevens was named the player of the Week 5 of the ISPS Handa Premiership this season after scoring a hattrick.
Stevens thanked Southern the chance to comeback to his homeland and improve his game and now expected his good performances in New Zealand can make the path for finding a new club this time in a full-professional European league.
Wing-Kai Orr Matthew Elliot, or simply Matt Orr is a 22 years old footballer born in Auckland (New Zealand) that also holds a Hongkonger citizenship.
He started his career in Hong Kong playing for Kitchee, the biggest football club in the territory. In 2016 he received a scholarship to play for San Francisco Dons (University of San Francisco) in NCAA. After a two and a half year stint in San Francisco he crossed the United States to play for Syracuse Orange that also plays NCAA.
Matt Orr
Orr recently finished his journey in the United States and he is back to Hong Kong to play for Kitchee in 2019-20 Hong Kong Premier League. He is still available to represent New Zealand National Teams.
Oceania Football Center 