AUCKLAND CITY FC MEDIA RELEASE: MONDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2008
AUCKLAND CITY SIGN SPANISH ACE
Auckland City Football Club has signed former FC Barcelona defender, Xavi Roca, for the upcoming New Zealand Football Championship.
Roca, 34, a former Spanish age-group international, has played professional football in his homeland for the past 14 years.
He joined Barcelona as a twelve year old and spent eleven years with the Spanish superclub - one of the biggest and most successful teams in the world.
Unable to break into Barcelona's much-vaunted top side and searching for more regular opportunities, he left the club after making only four first team appearances.
From 1999-2003 he represented world renowned club sides Villarreal and Espanyol in Spain's top league, the Primera Division. During this period he regularly played with, and against, some of the biggest names in world football.
Having played the last five seasons in Spain's second and third divisions, his decision to sign for Auckland City has surprised many football followers in his home country.
As Roca explains there are many reasons for his move:
"I have plenty of things motivating me in this new footballing adventure. Economic factors are certainly not one of them. The opportunity to play in a Champions League (the O-League) and also the Mundialito of Clubs (the FIFA Club World Cup) along with winning the New Zealand Football Championship are my main footballing goals.�
�Just as importantly though I am excited to learn about another culture, improve my English, which is not so good, and learn about a different style of football. All of these things will help me prepare for my future career as a coach."
"Playing-wise I still have plenty of football left in me and I am eager to demonstrate to the people of New Zealand why I have signed for Auckland City. I hope the many years of experience that I have in football, including playing in the Primera Division, can help assist with the development of the beautiful game in Oceania."
Auckland City's Head Coach, Colin Tuaa, is naturally excited by the prospect of Roca joining his squad for the new season.
"Xavi is obviously a special player. He has competed at the very highest level against some of the finest footballers in the world."
"His vast experience and professionalism promises to be a huge asset for us this season. In this regard, all of our players, especially our youngsters, can learn so much from him."
"It's also fantastic for the profile and growing reputation of the New Zealand Football Championship, along with the Oceania Champions League, that players like Xavi and Ivan Vicelich (Auckland's newly appointed captain) will be starring in this summer's competitions."
Xavi Roca - Statistics
Full name: Javier Roca Mateo
Nickname: Xavi Roca (pronounced �Shavi Rocka�)
Date of Birth: 19 January 1974
Place of Birth: Barcelona
Country: Spain
Height / Weight: 1.77m / 74kg
Position: Defender / Midfield
International Caps: 30 (Spain U15 - U21)
Club Statistics:
FC Barcelona 1986-1997
Logrones 1997/8
Toledo 1998/9
Villarreal 1999-2002
Espanyol 2002/3
Rayo Vallecano 2003/4
CE Hospitalet 2004-2006
CE Sabadell 2006-2008 (Club Captain)
Primera Division debut: FC Barcelona vs Deportivo de La Coruna 1995/96
Matches played in Spanish Primera Division: 60
Club managers played under include: Carles Reixach, Javier Clemente, Juande Ramos & Victor Munoz.
*Please note this release has not been posted on the Auckland City FC website (www.aucklandcityfc.com) as the site is currently undergoing temporary maintenance.
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They will be the club to beat this season, with Xavi & Vicelich, probably would beat our beloved Nix! C'mon Team Wellington & Youngheart!
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ONE TEAM IN AUCKLAND, THERE'S ONLY ONE TEAM IN AUCKLAND, ONE TEAM IN AUCKLAND.....
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an interesting signing.could do a bit to draw some crowds down if he is half decent.
i imagine he is going to be a really cultured footballer now after adding the new zealand 'style of football' to his game..
i imagine he is going to be a really cultured footballer now after adding the new zealand 'style of football' to his game..
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The sad, or frustrating part is that the other clubs can't or won't get off the arses and make similar signings to raise the standard of our national league, which players like Roca, Vicelich and "The Cannon Shooter" do. These are genuine crowd pullers and the game here needs those "marquee signings" if it is to get back to the glory days of the 1970s national league, in which similar signings were common place - (Steve Sumner, Bobby Almond et al).
New Zealand has so many things going for it as a lifestyle destination for players at the end of their careers. But will the provincial clubs cotton on. Fat chance.
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Uli,
Are you chasing Fifi, Finau and Vakatalesau as well ?
Are you chasing Fifi, Finau and Vakatalesau as well ?
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The sad, or frustrating part is that the other clubs can't or won't get off the arses and make similar signings to raise the standard of our national league, which players like Roca, Vicelich and "The Cannon Shooter" do. These are genuine crowd pullers and the game here needs those "marquee signings" if it is to get back to the glory days of the 1970s national league, in which similar signings were common place - (Steve Sumner, Bobby Almond et al).
That's a real tough call on the franchise clubs. Are you not aware of the wealth gap between the two Auckland franchises and the rest? Its huge, and probably now big enough to ensure no franchise outside Auckland will ever win the NZFC let alone go to the world club champs. Money and the fact that Xavi already has a personal connection to Auckland City through a mate who plays up there let this deal happen and there's no way any other club bar Waitakere could do anything like it. New Zealand has so many things going for it as a lifestyle destination for players at the end of their careers. But will the provincial clubs cotton on. Fat chance.
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Must be exciting times for ACFC fans.
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The sad, or frustrating part is that the other clubs can't or won't get off the arses and make similar signings to raise the standard of our national league, which players like Roca, Vicelich and "The Cannon Shooter" do. These are genuine crowd pullers and the game here needs those "marquee signings" if it is to get back to the glory days of the 1970s national league, in which similar signings were common place - (Steve Sumner, Bobby Almond et al).
That's a real tough call on the franchise clubs. Are you not aware of the wealth gap between the two Auckland franchises and the rest? Its huge, and probably now big enough to ensure no franchise outside Auckland will ever win the NZFC let alone go to the world club champs. Money and the fact that Xavi already has a personal connection to Auckland City through a mate who plays up there let this deal happen and there's no way any other club bar Waitakere could do anything like it.
New Zealand has so many things going for it as a lifestyle destination for players at the end of their careers. But will the provincial clubs cotton on. Fat chance.
Tough one this. I agree with both of you. I do think that "the rest" will continue to be just that unless they do attract some marquee-type talent , and I'm not talking about Pasifika players but from further afield.
In the seventies and eighties we had the likes of Mick Channon, Trevor Brooking etc come here for a few games to huge interest and even the presence of has-been (and soon not to be anymore) Justin Fashanu at Miramar added a lot to both the league and the club (and admittedly he took a lot from the club too, be we'd better not get into that...).
Waitakere and Auckland have been setting the standard here (remember Shannon Cole? Look at him now!) but, as has been said, how can it be done by other clubs? Someone's got to take a chance on a player and pay what's required. Big risk, but with potentially big rewards.
I'd've thought that someone like Jonny Gould (and his dad) at Hawkes Bay might be able to use his contacts a bit better than he seems to have.
Nix, Leyton Orient and Alloa Athletic supporting schmuck.
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The sad, or frustrating part is that the other clubs can't or won't get off the arses and make similar signings to raise the standard of our national league, which players like Roca, Vicelich and "The Cannon Shooter" do. These are genuine crowd pullers and the game here needs those "marquee signings" if it is to get back to the glory days of the 1970s national league, in which similar signings were common place - (Steve Sumner, Bobby Almond et al).
That's a real tough call on the franchise clubs. Are you not aware of the wealth gap between the two Auckland franchises and the rest? Its huge, and probably now big enough to ensure no franchise outside Auckland will ever win the NZFC let alone go to the world club champs. Money and the fact that Xavi already has a personal connection to Auckland City through a mate who plays up there let this deal happen and there's no way any other club bar Waitakere could do anything like it.
New Zealand has so many things going for it as a lifestyle destination for players at the end of their careers. But will the provincial clubs cotton on. Fat chance.
Rather than go through it again, I'll repost what I wrote in the NZFC/OCL debate
As I see it there iis a difference between social football and football as an entertainment. Club football, the grassroots of egg-chasing fame - is a social activity, and the people who run it, and are very good at running it, organising the grounds, the kids, the fundraising for jerseys, do it for totally different reasons than do those in the entertainment end of the scale, professional or semiprofessional football. In the early seventies NZ football instigated a semiprofessional football league to New Zealand, and initially it was a roaring success - especially in Christchurch, which is where I had emigrated with my family a couple of years before. The league was based around four or five strong Auckland clubs, with, from memory - it was 35 years ago - a team in Christchurch, Wellington and funnily enough, Gisborne City. The Christchurch team was based around some very good local players like Alan Marley and Ken France, but the club also brought out some fringe English pros, such as Ian Park and Steve Sumner (only 18), through some links with Preston as I recall. The point is that these English players, and later ones such as Bobby Almond - and Scottish ones such as Alan Mulgrew and later Alf Stamp, gave the league its star power, and people used to go and pay to watch them play. As I said, 4000 and 5000 crowds were the norm in the early days, and the national league was then envy of every sporting code in the country.
Such was the success that every town - and every club - wanted to be part of it, and the league was expanded, and then promotion relegation brought in, and the lines between the semiprofessional and the grassroots footballs became blurred. Local talent was stretched too thin, many of those ambitious grassroots clubs were never able to afford to bring in the star quality to improve both their sides and the spectacle their public could watch - it was a vicious circle. Eventually unfettered promotion relegation meant the league eventually lost its semiprofessional status as the grassroots clubs rose and at times there was the ludicrous situation of their being two clubs in Dunedin, which could not really support one semipro side. So by a type of osmosis, the national league went from being a successful semiprofessional league to a glorified grassroots league- and it withered and died.
This was the situation before the NZFC. And whereby they had a fresh start, with these franchise teams being effectively the semiprofessional teams, their distribution has been done on political grounds, and has created this flawed league we have now. With one third of the population in Auckland, and more importantly, at least half the football playing public not to mention the massivethan immigrant population who are brought up onfootball, there are only TWO teams in Auckland. That is crazy.
Those two Auckland teams have therefore managed to tap those resources to produce teams which are of true semiprofessional quality, while the other sides, for whatever reasons, have been unable to match it - they are simply glorified grassroots teams, and not only that but putting up teams with players who are not even the best grassroots players.
Auckland should have AT LEAST four teams - a team on the Shore and a team in the Eastern Suburbs. These clubs would have access to the resources to match ACFC and Waitak in every way and would then provide the basis for a strong semiprofessional league. There would be two games every weekend in Auckland with crowds in excess of 2000 at each game - guaranteed. The league and NZ football would immediately be on a better financial footing - and the rest of the country could piggyback of that. Can you imagine the Premier League having just two London clubs.
Instead of bringing the semiprofessional league back to a grassroots level, it would give every side a benchmark of what they need to aspire to. I am sure Christchurch would sort itself out, and given the likelihood of top Auckland semiprofessional sides visiting every month, their public will get out and support it, given how much they dellight in beating any Auckland side.
Wellington too would delight in seeing top football, and their Yellowfever diehards would soon be rallying to the cause, and filling the stadiums.
So now we have SIX good clubs, all on a true semiprofessional basis, strong, with a quality that will probably not look too bad on TV.
And then you have the product to get Sky to come along, perhaps put on a Monday night or Thursday night live game - as the basketball does now. They've managed to piggyback off the ANBL to get regular Thursday night coverage, in a timeslot the Pay channels seem eagar to fill with live sport.
And then there are the two other francises. What to do with them. Logically Waikato should have a side given its proximity to Auckland, and perhaps a University town could house a NZ development side - (that could be Otago or Palmerston North).
Or you could just give a fifth side to South Auckland, come up with a deal with Fiji to base a team there, and attract 10,000 Fijian spectators every week - as turned up to watch Ba play in the Oceania final at Mt Smart.
There is so much potential for football here in New Zealand - and it doesn't necessarily need the A League, but it does need some clear thinking from our football politicos - although pigs will fly first.
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It was Kevin Mulgrew and not Alan wasn't it?
And don't call me a pedant, I like it.
As for everything else you said, spot on.
TheJam2008-09-23 13:17:30Nix, Leyton Orient and Alloa Athletic supporting schmuck.
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The sad, or frustrating part is that the other clubs can't or won't get off the arses and make similar signings to raise the standard of our national league, which players like Roca, Vicelich and "The Cannon Shooter" do. These are genuine crowd pullers and the game here needs those "marquee signings" if it is to get back to the glory days of the 1970s national league, in which similar signings were common place - (Steve Sumner, Bobby Almond et al).
That's a real tough call on the franchise clubs. Are you not aware of the wealth gap between the two Auckland franchises and the rest? Its huge, and probably now big enough to ensure no franchise outside Auckland will ever win the NZFC let alone go to the world club champs. Money and the fact that Xavi already has a personal connection to Auckland City through a mate who plays up there let this deal happen and there's no way any other club bar Waitakere could do anything like it.
New Zealand has so many things going for it as a lifestyle destination for players at the end of their careers. But will the provincial clubs cotton on. Fat chance.
Rather than go through it again, I'll repost what I wrote in the NZFC/OCL debate
As I see it there iis a difference between social football and football as an entertainment. Club football, the grassroots of egg-chasing fame - is a social activity, and the people who run it, and are very good at running it, organising the grounds, the kids, the fundraising for jerseys, do it for totally different reasons than do those in the entertainment end of the scale, professional or semiprofessional football. In the early seventies NZ football instigated a semiprofessional football league to New Zealand, and initially it was a roaring success - especially in Christchurch, which is where I had emigrated with my family a couple of years before. The league was based around four or five strong Auckland clubs, with, from memory - it was 35 years ago - a team in Christchurch, Wellington and funnily enough, Gisborne City. The Christchurch team was based around some very good local players like Alan Marley and Ken France, but the club also brought out some fringe English pros, such as Ian Park and Steve Sumner (only 18), through some links with Preston as I recall. The point is that these English players, and later ones such as Bobby Almond - and Scottish ones such as Alan Mulgrew and later Alf Stamp, gave the league its star power, and people used to go and pay to watch them play. As I said, 4000 and 5000 crowds were the norm in the early days, and the national league was then envy of every sporting code in the country.
Such was the success that every town - and every club - wanted to be part of it, and the league was expanded, and then promotion relegation brought in, and the lines between the semiprofessional and the grassroots footballs became blurred. Local talent was stretched too thin, many of those ambitious grassroots clubs were never able to afford to bring in the star quality to improve both their sides and the spectacle their public could watch - it was a vicious circle. Eventually unfettered promotion relegation meant the league eventually lost its semiprofessional status as the grassroots clubs rose and at times there was the ludicrous situation of their being two clubs in Dunedin, which could not really support one semipro side. So by a type of osmosis, the national league went from being a successful semiprofessional league to a glorified grassroots league- and it withered and died.
This was the situation before the NZFC. And whereby they had a fresh start, with these franchise teams being effectively the semiprofessional teams, their distribution has been done on political grounds, and has created this flawed league we have now. With one third of the population in Auckland, and more importantly, at least half the football playing public not to mention the massivethan immigrant population who are brought up onfootball, there are only TWO teams in Auckland. That is crazy.
Those two Auckland teams have therefore managed to tap those resources to produce teams which are of true semiprofessional quality, while the other sides, for whatever reasons, have been unable to match it - they are simply glorified grassroots teams, and not only that but putting up teams with players who are not even the best grassroots players.
Auckland should have AT LEAST four teams - a team on the Shore and a team in the Eastern Suburbs. These clubs would have access to the resources to match ACFC and Waitak in every way and would then provide the basis for a strong semiprofessional league. There would be two games every weekend in Auckland with crowds in excess of 2000 at each game - guaranteed. The league and NZ football would immediately be on a better financial footing - and the rest of the country could piggyback of that. Can you imagine the Premier League having just two London clubs.
Instead of bringing the semiprofessional league back to a grassroots level, it would give every side a benchmark of what they need to aspire to. I am sure Christchurch would sort itself out, and given the likelihood of top Auckland semiprofessional sides visiting every month, their public will get out and support it, given how much they dellight in beating any Auckland side.
Wellington too would delight in seeing top football, and their Yellowfever diehards would soon be rallying to the cause, and filling the stadiums.
So now we have SIX good clubs, all on a true semiprofessional basis, strong, with a quality that will probably not look too bad on TV.
And then you have the product to get Sky to come along, perhaps put on a Monday night or Thursday night live game - as the basketball does now. They've managed to piggyback off the ANBL to get regular Thursday night coverage, in a timeslot the Pay channels seem eagar to fill with live sport.
And then there are the two other francises. What to do with them. Logically Waikato should have a side given its proximity to Auckland, and perhaps a University town could house a NZ development side - (that could be Otago or Palmerston North).
Or you could just give a fifth side to South Auckland, come up with a deal with Fiji to base a team there, and attract 10,000 Fijian spectators every week - as turned up to watch Ba play in the Oceania final at Mt Smart.
There is so much potential for football here in New Zealand - and it doesn't necessarily need the A League, but it does need some clear thinking from our football politicos - although pigs will fly first.
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Sorry, you're right (A seniors moment). Damn fine player and a real crowd puller - which again is my point. The NZFC at some stage is going to have to make a decision, whether it wants to be a true semiprofessional and make those clubs who want to be in it, invest in decent players and facilities, or go back to the park football that is played at the moment.
But I won't pay to go and watch that crap.
I want a real semipro competition, and I want to see more than three decent fullblooded, big crowd games a year.
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Seems consensus on here is for a couple more Ak teams. I'm sure it would work a whole lot better and seem more balanced than it is now. What do we do? Lobby NZF?
Nix, Leyton Orient and Alloa Athletic supporting schmuck.
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To be honest though adding 2 other Auckland teams will not weaken the ACFC's and the Waitaks - it will just make the other sides in the league weaker... Players who cant quite cut it in auckland shift away to other clubs in the country. Dont get me wrong im all for the idea of auckland having another two clubs but ill bet that Waitak and ACFC are still the two who win it year in and year out.
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Couldn't do any harm. But IMO the NZF is part of the problem in that it is a political organisation and it is politics that have given us this , one team, one federation crap league that we have. Perhaps the idea is to push for an independent league, run by a commissioner, which is the way the basketball is heading. And they've been going for more than thirty years themselves, and manage to get their games on prime time Sky, with less resources than football does. They piggy back their league on the ANBL, and even get some ANBL players to play in the league.
The sad thing is, we had a bloody good football league in the 1970s, and have gone backwards ever since. We should be trying to get back there using the things that made it great.
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Auckland (the city, not the club) would probably still dominate, but I'm really looking at it from an interest and a balance point of view. Two clubs in Ak is too few.
Nix, Leyton Orient and Alloa Athletic supporting schmuck.
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They don't move out of Auckland. There are tons of players in Auckland of better quality than in the other NZFC teams. Apart from Team Wellington, all the other teams would struggle in the Northern Premier League. And that's the bloody point.
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I don't think that is entirely fair Dai. Dunedin tech. beat Glenfield and other good sides to make the Chatham Cup final and Hawkes Bay, chock full of the U-20 squad aren't rubbish.
If Otago can hold the players in the region this year they could do alright, as could the Bay. I'd back both of them to beat most NPL sides.
If Otago can hold the players in the region this year they could do alright, as could the Bay. I'd back both of them to beat most NPL sides.
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You know as well as I do HN that the Chatham Cup is done on a regional basis until the last few rounds, by which time quite a few top Auckland sides have been knocked out. On a week by week basis, they would struggle against the Centrals, Eastern Suburbs, North Shores, Glenfields just to name a few. It would be even tougher if the tosspots in United Soccer1 hadn't pulled their teams from the NPL, again showing the intercinine political nature of football in this country. I'd love for Hawkes Bay and Dunedin to have strong teams, but if you look at the national league in the 1970s, it was based around four or five strong Auckland clubs, with strong sides from Canterbury and Wellington. It's like saying Welling Garden City should have a side in the English Premiership. If you can't compete, you can't compete. Don't bring the league down on some PC, everybody can participate philosophy. Either the other clubs start trying to match Auckland and Waitakere or they pack up and go home, and leave their spots for others who can. North Shore, Glenfield, Manurewa and an Eastern Auckland team would jump at the chance, and provide good strong clubs, good support both financially and supporters wise, and the league would instantly be on a far stronger basis. They'd even have a strong case for Sky coverage.
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So what your trying to say Dai is - lets try develop the game in Auckland.... I agree with having more teams from that area but its not really a national league if just teams from Auckland are in it now is it? The thing is, it is similar to the Scottish Premier League in regards that Auckland and Waitak (Celtic and Rangers) are always going to win it - with one of the others in 3rd. If the league expands that would be great for the game in the country , however if it leads to the demise of football in the rest of the country then it may as well just be called the Northern Premier League.
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I would say that with the present situation in US1 that you may find that several clubs unhappy with that league would find it very favourable to form a summer entity to provide top level football if that was an option. I also like the idea of basing an age group team in a town or city. nzowl2008-09-23 14:44:00
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The idea is to get the league good and strong first - as it was in the 1970s, its heyday. That may mean a league of 8 semipro teams, with four or five of them based in Auckland. It may be that the likes of Hawkes Bay or Waikato are able to put a side togetherall well and good, but the cold hard facts are this. You have to be able to bring in the punters, and the backers and the players to compete in a semipro league. If you can't, you can't. But none of this, we've got to stop Auckland or Waitak getting so strong and bring them back to the pack crap. It's not up to them to stop being better than everybody else, it is up to everybody else to start figuring out how to do it as well as them. And that means stop whingeing on about how you can't afford this, and they have all that. As I said, there are at least two, possible three or four clubs in Auckland who can.
It's the same as the Premier League. Everyone whinged on about Manchester United, and then Arsenal stepped up to the plate. Then everyone whinged on about ManU and Arsenal, and Chelsea stepped up to the plate. Then it was the big three, and no one could compete. Then Liverpool stepped up - and this year it is Manchester City, and so on.it's about getting serious, and down to business. Not whingeing in some jealousy-driven, everybody is equal, utilitarian fantasy land, like you are taught at school. This is the real world and the football community has to get real.
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wouldn't this spanish guy be abit past his due by dat if hes playing here now instead of still being a player in spain who gets paid way more than we pay him here???
jus a thought?
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Maybe auckland are paying him sh*tloads i.e. more than Jordan and Young combined!
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bugger that would be a sh*tload of $$$. City's budget far exceeds Waitaks in all shape and form I would imagine.
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Yeh well youve just got to look at young, jordan and urlovic to start with and that budget would already be sky high from last season... and with the introduction of ivan and spanish guy they must be getting some good funding from somewhere!
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And all power to them for getting off their arses and getting it.
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