One of the most outstanding players of Labasa in the last season is going to join then Men in Black in the 2023 season of football in Fiji: Ratu Anare is going to reinforce the attack of Ba. It was today disclosed by Fijian FA that Anare applied to join Ba alongisde three other players: Mohammed Raheem, Gulam Rasool and Samuela Navoce.
Anare talked to Oceania Football Center about his transfer: “I just got transfered to Ba police station. It is going to be easier to me play here because I will be working already here“, said the player explaining the situation – “It is confirmed I will play for Ba“, added the player.
Anare (left) as Labasa player – Fiji FA Media
The 30-year-old player known due his pace played 15 matches last season for Labasa in the Fijian Premier League scoring three goals. The player also represented Suva in his carrer, already played 70 national league games in career.
There are good news for the Capital City Boys supporters! It has been confirmed by Suva FC’s Media today that the striker Bruce Hughes is going to return to play for Suva after a number of seaons represent Rewa. The striker achieved success in Rewa and can be an important addition for the team from the Fijian capital: “Suva FA welcomes Bruce Hughes back to the Whites camp. He joins us for 2023 and has gotten his release. The Suva FC family welcomes Bruce back to the Whites for another stint. He will be available for selection for the CVC this weekend“, said Suva in official statement.
Bruce Hughes – Fiji FA Media
This weekend Suva will be playing the first leg of the Champion vs Champion series in Fiji; and, of course, Hughes will be playing against his former club in the series. The OFC 2023 Champions League national playoff will also be played between Rewa and Suva, meaning Hughes will need once again to face his former teammates in a decisive series to determine which of the two teams will proceed to the O-League group stage.
The year 2013 was special for Tahiti and for the people of French Polynesia, the Tahiti team came to Brazil to compete at the FIFA Confederations Cup. For that, Toa Aito made history by winning the 2012 OFC Nations Cup by surpassing Solomon Islands’ hosts at the semifinal and beating rivals New Caledonia in the grand final.
That generation led by Eddy Etaeta had names like brothers Lorenzo Tehau, Jonathan Tehau and Alvin Tehau, – and also Teaonui Tehau, Nicolas Vallar, Mickael Roche, Steevy Chong Hue etc. That is surely one of the best generations of the history of Tahiti football.
After the OFC U-17 championship came to an end Tahiti failed to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, but in compensation can get a glimpse of what may be the future of the national team. Names like Titouan Guillemant, Keanan Faure, Argan Clodic-Boucher and Vaitea Seguy have made their mark in Fiji.
Guillemant, Faure, Cloudic-Boucher and Seguy – OFC Media/Colomiers Media
Vaitea Seguy showed himself to be a true organizer in the midfield, always dictating the rhythm of the team and being tough on the opponent in the defensive half. His goal against Fiji at the third-place match was certainly one of the most beautiful of the championship.
Titouan Guillemant will surely be in the Tahitian football news for the next years; the AS Tefana striker finished the OFC U-17 Championship as one of the top-scorers, scoring in every match. His runs from the right into the back of the defense surprised all defenses during the competition.
Argan Clodic-Boucher stopped everything he could, conceding only two goals, Tahiti had the best defense of the championship, much due to the performance of the Paris 13 Atletico goalkeeper who is another product of the excellent school of Tahitian goalkeepers that has names like Anapa Debruyne, Teave Teamotuaitau, Keahinui Heinis, Moana Pito and also Camile Giselle goalkeeper of the Tahitian women’s national team who plays professionally in France.
Keanan Faure dropped a bit in performance from the start to the end of tournament but that did not stop him from being elected by OFC best XI of the championship. A very good player on 1v1 situations and with passes that break defensive lines.
Other names also deserve to be highlighted such as the right-back Kanoa Barsinas – who showed to have excellent passing skills – and the midfielder Tiahiti Colombani who is only 14 years-old and already scored in two matches in the tournament.
We will probably see a lot of these youngsters in action next year at the OFC U-19 Championship and later in the national team. Those compose a group of very good young players – diamonds that Tahitian football need to cut.
Former Rewa rep and Fijian international Savenaca Baledrokadroka has a new team in Australia; the player recently signed for NPL3 side Beaumeris Soccer Club in Melbourne. This is the third club for Savenaca in Australia as the player already represented Frankston Pines and Doveton.
Baledrodroka, that represented Fiji national team seven times and also played for its U-23 team, moved to Australia in 2019 to join Frankston Pines. The player had a rapid rise in the local football as he is currently playing three-tiers higher than he arrived in Australia.
Savenaca Baledrokadroka – Beaumeris SC Media
Kevin Taylor, that coached Savenaca at Frankston Pines and is now currently in the technical staff of his new team Beaumeris SC, talked to Oceania Football Center about the current situation of the player in Australia: “Savenaca is doing very well. He’s definitely taking a big step in fitness” said Taylor.
The player might be in the radar of Fiji national team head coach Flemming Serritslev for the next duties of the Bula Boys as he is certainly improving his status in local football in Australia.
It is now official, Raphael Lea’i is now a professional player! The Solomon Islands attacker has signed a deal with FK Velež Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina first-tier division, making him the first senior player ever from Solomon Islands to sign a contract in European football.
“Football club Velež Mostar informs all its members, fans and friends of the club that Raphael Ohanua Lea’i Jr. has officially became a new player of our Club. In the presence of the director of the Velež Football Club, Sanjin Alagić, on Friday, in the official premises of the Club, and after a successful trial in which he met the criteria of Velež’s professional staff“, said the club in its official statement.
Raphael Lea’i signing his new deal in Europe – FK Velež Mostar Media
It is known the player signed a contract until May, 2024 with an option to extend the deal for another year, as stated also in press release by the Bosnian club. Lea’i had player previously friendly matches for the club and also started the last of them against FK Igman Konjic, also a first-tier team in the country.
The Vahirua family is one of the most successful when it comes to Football in Oceania’s history. Marama Vahirua achieved success in French football and played for Tahiti national team – especially at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. Pascal Vahirua, Marama’s cousin, who was also born in French Polynesia played 22 games for the French senior national team.
Now his sons follow in his footsteps, Hirinai Vahirua plays for Gazelec Ajaccio and his daughter Hereiti Vahirua has been playing for OGC Nice since 2020. She has now received a call-up to be in the training camp of the Tahitian U-19 women’s national team that will take place between February 18th and 24th, which will serve as preparation for the OFC U-19 Women’s Championship that will take place in April – as released by the FTF.
Hereiti Vahirua – Nice Media
Tahiti’s list also features four players who were at the OFC Nations Cup: the goalkeeper Gelimma El Hadj Kaddour who has already played the tournament in 2019 when he was a starter at just 14 years old, the midfielders Kohai Mais, Krystal Vivish and the striker Hinavainui Malfatti – with the latter being along with Hereiti Vahirua the only two who currently plays in France. Malfatti was one of Tahiti’s best players in the OFC Women’s Nations Cup when she was the second youngest player in the tournament at just 15 years old. In a friendly against New Caledonia after the tournament she scored a hat-trick in Tahiti’s 4-1 win on that occasion.
The big loss for Tahiti will not be being able to count on the presence of Stéphanie Spielmann who has stepped down as coach position of the national team and youth teams after 5 years. She is now working with the Oceania Football Confederation to develop women’s football in the South Pacific.
New Zealand confirmed their favoritism and won the OFC U-17 Championship for the ninth time, moving ever closer to overtaking Australia – which has 10 titles – as the tournament’s greatest champion.
It was not an easy tournament for the Kiwis, they faced difficulties in almost every match of the competition. In the final – which was a replay of the first round match against New Caledonia – it was no different.
In the very first minute of the game Jean-Philippe Angexetine had a chance to open the scoring for New Caledonia, he won the ball from the New Zealand captain, Dylan Gardiner and his finish went side-netting.
A few minutes later Harrison Tisch took a corner-kick that would have been a goal if it was not cleared off the line by Bayron Gohoupe on the goalline. At the 24th minute New Zealand scored what would be the winning goal – Ryan Lee crossed, the New Caledonian goalkeeper Claude Tiaouniane fumbled the ball that was left for Niko Bruce to finish with his left-foot and score.
New Caledonia almost tied the match at the 44th minute when Joseph Hnaissilin made a beautiful move dribbling around his marking-man and finishing to a beautiful save by New Zealand goalkeeper Matt Foord.
OFC Media
In the second-half the match situation remained the same, New Caledonia was moving up its scoring lines to force New Zealand into error. But the first big chance was for New Zealand – Luke Supyk exchanged passes with Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues and shot to the left of the goal, almost adding another to his tally in the tournament.
Just two minutes later New Zealand defender Luka Coveny was shown a second yellow-card and consequently the red card after fouling Nolhann Alebate.
With an extra-man the pressure from New Caledonia increased, with many crosses to the box and individual plays from their great talent – Nolhann Alebate. The big chance to tie the score came in the 93rd minute when Alebate took a corner kick, Kyllian Wiako headed it towards goal and Matt Foord made a point-blank save. In the next corner Alebate tried to finish straight at goal and Foord spilled the ball over the crossbar, preventing the Cagous from equalizing. These were the final actions of the game that ended up with a narrow 1-0 win in favour of the New Zealanders.
Both New Zealand and New Caledonia will be preparing for the FIFA U-17 World Cup to be held in Peru this December.
Awards:
Tournament team selected by OFC
Luke Supyk (New Zealand) and Titouan Guillemant (Tahiti) shared the tournament’s golden boot, both with 6 goals each.
Matt Foord (New Zealand) took the Golden Glove, given to the best goalkeeper of the competition.
Nolhann Alebate (New Caledonia) took the gold ball for the best player of the championship.
It is been widely rumoured throught the football backstage in Fiji that the well-known defender Antonio Tuivuna is set to return to Labasa – a team that he achieved many success in his country. The Fijian international is currently attached to Lautoka where he played the last football season in the country.
Tuivuna (left) in Lautoka colours – Fiji FA Media
Tuivuna, the 2019 player of the year in Fiji when playing for Labasa, could be a very good adition to Labasa’s rebuilding team – Tuivuna won three major tournaments as a Labasa player. According to sources around the club, Tuivuna is set to return to Labasa. Oceania Football Center also asked to Lautoka’s officials about the reliability of the rumours; it was mentioned Tuivuna did not aplicate to departure to club yet: “We haven’t received his application yet so he is still a Lautoka player“, it was informed – giving signals the player is really due to leave the team and just details are separating him from Labasa.
The next Tony‘s moves will be certainly closely followed by Labasa’s and Lautoka’s fans expecting to count on him for the upcoming football season int the country.
The hosts could not support the technical superiority of the Tama Ura: Tahiti displayed excellent football especially in the second half to surpass Fiji and get the third-place finish at the OFC U-17 Championship after an emphatic 3-0 win; Tahit’s top-scorer in the tournament Titouan Guillemant was particularly impressive participating in all three goals of his team in the match.
Tahiti had shown certain difficulties to sustain the pressure from the Fijain team in the start of the game, especially the Australian-based player Ibraheem Afazal was a threat to the Tahitian defensive system – that proved to be a weakest point of the team throught the tournament as well in this match, despite the impressive performance of its goalkeeper Argan Cloudic-Boucher in this match and also the previous games of Tahiti in the competition.
Despite the pressure, the team coached by Sunil Kumar could not take their chances. Tahiti also created some opportunities especially through the efforts of Keanan Faure and Titouan Guillemant; but only after the first-half the Tahitians were able to break the deadlock: at the 51th minute, the French-based Vaitea Seguy scored a fantastic goal from the edge of the box after a play created by Guillemant in the right. Five minutes later it was Guillemant who scored the goal, after a sloppy defensive mistake from Fijian team allowing the Tahitian No. 9 to be found free at the penalty box.
The Fijian defence could not deal with Guillemant – OFC Media
At the 68th minute it was the turn of the substitute Ariiheivarau Tama to score – assisted once again by Guillemant that left Tama free in the box just to tap-it-in. The Tahitians took total control of the match in the final third of the game with a very tired Fijian team on the pitch totally beaten.
Ibraheem Afazil still tried to get some trouble to the Tahitian defense with this runs and also with a set-piece finish, but nothing that really put in the danger the goal guarded by Argan Cloudic-Boucher.
Despite not progressing to the U-17 World Cup, Tahiti finished on a high the tournament showing they have great talent to take for the next years especially on the names of Titouan Guillemant, Argan Cloudic-Boucher, Vaitea Seguy and Keanan Faure.
Raphael Lea’i is one of the greatest talents Oceania football has ever produced, his meteoric rise came in the 2018 OFC U-16 championship when he scored a hattrick against New Zealand. He then went to the Wellington Phoenix Academy before returning to his homeland to play for the Henderson Eels.
In the FIFA World Cup qualifiers Rapha had spectacular performances against Tahiti scoring a hattrick against the Polynesians and scoring once again against the Kapuls. His performance made us wonder, when will Raphael Lea’i get the opportunity in professional football?
Raphael Lea’i in action in a friendly match for Velež Mostar – Velež Mostar Media
“FK Velež Mostar required a letter from Henderson Eels club management before Rapha will put pen on paper. The first six months will only contain the players benefits like his salary and benefits or compensations for clubs that is associated with Raphael Lea’i will come later after the contract renewal” said Hudson Wakio Tareina’a told to the Solomons Football Post.
Oceania Football Center will closely watch the followings of Lea’i in Europe bringing news to the Oceania Football Community.
Oceania Football Center 