Best player never to play for AWs

Matt Cantwell

Has anyone heard of this guy? Played  Champions League for Floriana vs Porto in the 90's.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/kim-wright/profil/spieler/178835

Rusty Dunks

Has anyone heard of this guy? Played  Champions League for Floriana vs Porto in the 90's.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/kim-wright/profil/spieler/178835

 I've haven't heard of him outside the fact he's one of only five or so NZers to play UCL. That being said, the UCL was different in its infancy, in that there wasn't a group stage like now, but straight into knockout rounds, and groups only when eight teams remained. The weaker nations, such as Malta, where Floriana are from, would only have to play one qualifying round, with the winners getting to the First Round of the Champions' League. That year Floriana just had to beat the Lithuanian champions to qualify for the competition 'proper', whereas this year the Maltese champions would have had to win four ties to qualify for the competition 'proper'.

Rusty Dunks

Has anyone heard of this guy? Played  Champions League for Floriana vs Porto in the 90's.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/kim-wright/profil/spieler/178835

Yeh, Kim Wright was a National League player for North Shore United, played a lot of age group rep football and stuff, and a few games for the All Whites in late 90s (not sure any were full internationals?).  Good left peg, played out wide.

Khalil Media

Rusty Dunks

Has anyone heard of this guy? Played  Champions League for Floriana vs Porto in the 90's.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/kim-wright/profil/spieler/178835

Yeh, Kim Wright was a National League player for North Shore United, played a lot of age group rep football and stuff, and a few games for the All Whites in late 90s (not sure any were full internationals?).  Good left peg, played out wide.

Played 6 games for NZ - no full internationals, against the likes of IFK Gothenburg and Young Brazil etc

Who are the other Kiwis to play Champions League then?

Marko
Killen
Hay
Wright

and?

Reportsare

Who are the other Kiwis to play Champions League then?

Marko
Killen
Hay
Wright

and?

Well Rufer, Wynton! Winston Reid I think? 

martinb

Reportsare

Who are the other Kiwis to play Champions League then?

Marko
Killen
Hay
Wright

and?

Well Rufer, Wynton! Winston Reid I think? 

Reid, surprisingly, doesn't have any European appearances, he was as close as being on the bench in the UEFA Cup/Europa League at Midtjylland, but never got on. Then, at West Ham, they failed to get through the qualifiers.

If you include the old European Cup, prior to the 92/93 rebrand, then eight New Zealand internationals have been in matchday squads (though one, Sarpreet Singh, never got on). Rufer had 10 appearances (8 goals) for Werder Bremen, Sean Byrne had 8 for Dundalk, Killen 5 for Celtic, '82 All White John Hill had 4 for Glentoran, then it's Wright's 2 appearances, Stamenic's and Hay's total of four minutes. Byrne and Hill made those appearances prior to immigrating to New Zealand and then becoming All Whites, so they don't really count though. For comparison, 40 Australians (including Ufuk Talay) have played in the UCL, and a further six have been unused substitutes.

11 New Zealanders have played in the UEFA Cup/Europa League: Wynton Rufer (16 games, 6 goals), Ryan Thomas (10 games), Chris Wood (6 games, 2 goals), Killen (3 games), Ryan Nelsen (3 games), Hill (2 games), Wright (2 games), Ivan Vicelich (1 game), Byrne (1 game), Shane Rufer (1 game) and Kosta Barbarouses (1 game). Reid and Glen Moss have been unused substitutes. 85 Australians have played in the UEFA Cup/Europa League, and a further 18 have been unused subs. To round it up, four Australians have played Europa Conference League and no New Zealanders.

Surprised Kris Bouckenooghe isn’t one of them.

Buffon II

Surprised Kris Bouckenooghe isn’t one of them.

No, most of his career was below the top tier in Belgium.  He became the first Kiwi to play in the Jupiler League (well, first All White - first Kiwi being Archie Thompson) when Roeselare got promoted, but it was only a handful of games (by his own admission the standard was way above anything he'd played before) and they were never in the mix for Europe.  He played out the rest of his career in the second division.

I had a feeling Raf and Noah may have played CL qualifiers during their time in Finland?  Noah and Lee Jones won the league with Tampere, so I'm guessing they were in the European mix the following season, and I think they may have also played in the old Intertoto Cup as well?

Khalil Media

Buffon II

Surprised Kris Bouckenooghe isn’t one of them.

No, most of his career was below the top tier in Belgium.  He became the first Kiwi to play in the Jupiler League (well, first All White - first Kiwi being Archie Thompson) when Roeselare got promoted, but it was only a handful of games (by his own admission the standard was way above anything he'd played before) and they were never in the mix for Europe.  He played out the rest of his career in the second division.

I had a feeling Raf and Noah may have played CL qualifiers during their time in Finland?  Noah and Lee Jones won the league with Tampere, so I'm guessing they were in the European mix the following season, and I think they may have also played in the old Intertoto Cup as well?

According to Transfermarkt, Noah played Intertoto. Ivan did too. 

Lee Jones and Raf de "We've got Gregorio, you killed Falconio" played CL qualifiers. 

Rory Fallon played some Europa League qualifiers. 

Me

The MussAdam Highfield

 how about the blonde wavy haired dude, or Stu Riddle. 

Was looking at the career reminiscing with Winston's retirement - if we hadn't beaten Bahrain then I'm 90% certain he'd be on this list.  I interviewed him in 2007 and he was completely committed to Denmark and had no interest in changing.  If he'd been closer to their senior squad at the time then there's every chance he would have held on for a shot with them.  And to be fair I don't blame him - his entire football education was over there and he was completely immersed in Danish culture.  

So perhaps it's fair that we acknowledge the team that beat Bahrain as the catalyst of his All Whites career? :)  Otherwise I believe he would've been another Archie Thompson (who, despite what he said in his autobiography, considers himself a Kiwi and told me he cheers for the All Blacks...)

The answer to this question is straight up Ben Chilwell though, right?