Picture this: needing to request time off from your regular full-time job just to travel internationally and compete against football giants like Harry Kane and Bayern Munich in the FIFA Club World Cup. This isn`t a hypothetical for Auckland City FC, an amateur club from New Zealand. Their players face this unique balancing act, making them the only amateur team participating this summer.
Auckland City is no stranger to this tournament stage, boasting a dominant record in Oceania with 13 OFC Men`s Champions League titles, making them the region`s most successful club. The expanded Club World Cup this year offers them a special opportunity. Success isn`t just about tactics; it`s built on a cohesive squad playing for one another. As sporting director Gordon Watson puts it, they are a close-knit family.
Goalkeeper Conor Tracey articulates the feeling: “The feeling of getting to the stage where we get to compete on this level gets better and better every time we win the O League or any match for me. It`s quite a big feeling because it`s a culmination of all the hard work that the players and the team have put in not only for this year but for the last four years, for the last 10 years.” He elaborates on the daily grind: “I go to work, I work a 40-hour week, I train, I gotta go through an hour and a half to two hours of traffic just to get to training… I train for about two hours, sometimes I`m late, so it may only be an hour, but I miss out on a lot of my personal time because of this football.”
For context, picture a U.S. lower-division team, perhaps one that had a remarkable run in the U.S. Open Cup, winning their continental championship and qualifying for the Club World Cup. Merely participating in this tournament is a significant achievement for Auckland City FC, one whose full impact might only resonate after they return home. Drawn into a challenging Group C alongside powerhouses Bayern Munich, Benfica, and Boca Juniors, even securing a single point would be noteworthy. However, the primary goal in such tournaments is often the invaluable experience of facing the world`s elite players.
Reaching this stage requires an impressive level of balance, demonstrating each player`s deep commitment to the club. Even during the process of arranging interviews for this article, Tracey had to cut short a conversation to ensure he returned to his day job promptly after his lunch break.
Tracey further illustrates the demands on his time: “The spare time that I do have is not a lot, especially coming into this weekend, I`ve got work on Sunday, just as an example. Even with work, my work cuts into a lot of my own time and football time. Each one has, like, grown into my personal time…” He describes squeezing in personal relationships: “…coming into the weekend, Friday night I`m going to try and see my girlfriend… I`ll probably get an hour with her before I need to go to bed, and in the morning, I have about two hours to go get a coffee with her before I need to start getting ready for the game. All those tiny little moments you try to organize in the week leading up, so before you even get to Friday, your whole weekend is already taken up with a whole schedule.”
He emphasizes the deliberate nature of their commitment: “Every single moment is highly treasured. We don`t get a lot of time, I don`t get a lot of time but wrapping back into it being a choice… that`s what separates us as a team from everyone else because everyone in our team has that choice to either do what we do which is working full time, having this huge football schedule and really eating into your own personal time, not being able to spend as much time with your friends or family as the normal person, or you can live the normal life of someone else. It`s still tough for anyone else, but they don`t have the 16-18 hours of football in the week on top of a 40-hour work week.”
As the tournament`s sole amateur representatives, Auckland City FC offers a unique, highly relatable perspective. Their story of balancing professional careers with sporting aspirations resonates with many who strive for goals that demand significant personal sacrifices.
Auckland City`s right back, Jordan Vale, exemplifies this balance, working as a teacher at Te Atatū Intermediate School. Football isn`t New Zealand`s leading sport (that`s rugby), making the level of sacrifice undertaken by these players for the game even more remarkable.
The Club World Cup`s location in the U.S. required Auckland City players to arrange time off work. Vale, for instance, considered resigning but successfully transitioned to a substitute teaching role, gaining more flexibility for his football commitments. Even the coaching staff faces challenges; personal reasons will prevent head coach Paul Rosa from joining the team for the initial tournament phase, leaving the Navy Blues under the guidance of Adria Casals, Ivan Vicelich, Daewook Kim, and Jonas Hoffmann.
Vale shares his challenges: “Coming into this season, at the end of last year and having done it for about six years, I was getting mentally a bit exhausted, my workload plus football, those sacrifices were kind of catching up to me.” He explains the relentless schedule: “Our season, if you`re including preseason, goes from January to December, so we only get three or four weeks off until we`re back into preseason, so I was getting quite overworked in my position and I was trying to think, how am I going to juggle and make this work this year?”
His solution involved a calculated risk: “So what I had decided was to make a decent sacrifice and try to be a reliever (substitute). And I did that and resigned last year.” Fortunately, his principal intervened: “However, my principal came to me a few days later and said, we don`t want to lose you, we`re happy with those times [that will be needed off] for the Club World Cup and I`ve got this flexible [position]… which has been a massive deloading in work where I`ve been able to find a bit more of those precious times, a bit more free time, and mentally that`s allowed me to refocus on football and still give 100% into my work.”
This level of prioritization and commitment isn`t for everyone, often requiring significant unpaid leave. This naturally limits the pool of potential players when building a competitive team. However, sporting director Watson emphasizes that recruiting players with strong character, like Vale and Tracey, is crucial for success. Some players are even willing to change jobs to ensure they can accommodate the demanding football schedule, underscoring their dedication to the Navy Blues.
Watson reflects on these choices from his perspective: “There are tough choices. When I hear them making these decisions, there`s a parental part of me that goes, `Oh my god, don`t do that.` I did it and it`s not nice, like it`s tough, but again it`s a choice, and when you reflect back on your own life as a middle-aged man… it brings back all the sacrifice, the heartache, the disappointment.” He continues, outlining the uncertainty: “There`s no guarantee you`ll get picked. You can be grumpy around your family or grumpy around your girlfriend because that`s not going well. Plus, you`re doing your job.” Despite the difficulties, he sees the unique opportunity: “You only get one shot at this in life, one shot, one Club World Cup, one game with Bayern Munich, one game with Benfica, one with Boca Juniors. Is it worth it? I think that`s a very personal choice, but I`m in awe of them.”
These matches will expose Auckland City to a vast global audience and potentially provide players with opportunities to secure professional contracts. While there`s a known route for Auckland City players moving to the Australian A-League, strong showings in the Club World Cup could be truly career-defining. The team is enthusiastic about returning to the competition, especially for its expanded 32-team format.
Even if match results aren`t ideal, the tournament offers unforgettable experiences, such as the impact it`s having back at Jordan Vale`s school. Vale describes inspiring the next generation: “At the start of this year, I really wanted to encourage kids playing football at our school, and I think we`ve been quite successful. We got maybe 100 boys to sign up for trials, and we had about 80 girls sign up, so it was actually really successful.” He credits visuals: “The one way we did it was I was working with the PE teacher, and he set up a big poster of just football photos from a couple of tournaments last year, but I asked him to take a few pictures from the Club World Cup of [Karim] Benzema. I think there`s a couple of [me] shaking his hand or seeing him after [the game]…” This led to a touching interaction: “…so a student had came up to me, and he had drawn us together because he loved Benzema, and he kept quizzing me on the time there, and he found out that at the end of the game you randomly get drug tested and so my name got drawn.”
While drug testing after a match isn`t usually something players look forward to (often taking hours), for Vale, this particular instance had a significant and memorable impact. Vale recounts the unique experience: “I walked into the room, and there was Benzema and Fabinho, who had also been randomly selected. So we got to sit in this quite cramped room and just have a chat for an hour, which for me and Cameron [Harper], because we`re both Liverpool fans, it was really awesome to see Fabinho, but also Benzema. It was amazing…” This story resonated with the student: “…that kid had found out about that story and was just quizzing me, but now it`s about Harry Kane. `Will you be able to tackle him?`”
Vale and Auckland City will soon face that question as they kick off their Club World Cup campaign against Bayern Munich on June 15. Regardless of the outcome, their journey is already inspiring the next generation of players as football continues to grow in New Zealand. Sharing the field with global icons is a special experience, and by competing against their heroes, these amateur players are becoming heroes in their own right back home.
