Brazil is a vast country of some 220 million inhabitants \u2013 and almost as many footballers. The country\u2019s men\u2019s football team currently sit fifth in the FIFA\/Coca-Cola Men\u2019s World Ranking, and they have lifted the FIFA World Cup\u2122 on no fewer than five occasions.<\/p>\n
Tiny New Caledonia has a population around 270,000. The men\u2019s national team lies 160th in the World Ranking and have never graced the World Cup. The New Caledonian Football Association (FCF), which joined FIFA in 2004 after breaking away from the French Football Association, has around 5,000 registered players.<\/p>\n
There could hardly be a starker contrast between the two countries but, according to New Caledonia coach Johann Sidaner, the passion, application and a physicality of their footballers bares comparison with their South American counterparts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that if New Caledonia had as many players as Brazil, they\u2019d be up there with the best teams in the world,” he told FIFA.<\/p>\n
‘They can play with their eyes closed’
\nAfter touching down on the Pacific Ocean archipelago two years ago, initially as the technical director of the association\u2019s national teams, Sidaner was instantly enthused by what he found.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe New Caledonian player embodies everything you could dream of in the profile of a footballer. It\u2019s just incredible,\u201d he explained. \u201cTheir game is all about teamwork, passing ability, creativity, intelligence and spirit. They have an ability to play with their eyes closed, they understand one another, are extremely unselfish and possess outstanding physical attributes. They never get injured and are as tough as nails. The list of their qualities is endless. They\u2019re a real joy to coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strong ties with France and Nantes
\nThe French tactician has clearly succumbed to the New Caledonian charm, although he certainly had a good idea of what he was getting himself in to. Before taking on the mantle of national team coach in September 2022, he spent over a decade as the head of the U-13 to U-15 set-ups at his hometown side Nantes \u2013 the club where New Caledonians Antoine Kombouare, who currently serves as the Ligue 1 outfit\u2019s first\u2011team coach, and Christian Karembeu, a 1998 FIFA World Cup\u2122 winner with France, once plied their trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cJean\u2011Claude Suaudeau (an iconic Nantes coach during the 1990s) was a big fan of those players,\u201d explained Sidaner. \u201cHe liked their creativity, technical brilliance and exceptional athleticism. Christophe Coursimault, a fellow Nantes native and friend of mine going back 25 years, was the national team coach of New Caledonia (2010\u2011\u06f2\u06f0\u06f1\u06f2), and he told me that the FCF was looking for a new coach.”<\/p>\n
On his reasoning for leaving home comforts behind and taking the leap, Sidaner explained: “I fancied an experience abroad and the idea of pushing myself. I was coming to the end of a cycle at the Nantes academy. The idea was to see what I was capable of. Above all, I was curious to work with these players, even though I wasn\u2019t starting completely from scratch, so I ended up taking my family with me to the other side of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
An amazing adventure
\nTwo years on, the 47\u2011year\u2011old coach has no regrets as he prepares to embark on a fascinating, new adventure: the FIFA World Cup 26\u2122 qualifying campaign. The OFC region is guaranteed one place in the expanded 48\u2011team tournament, as well as a berth in the intercontinental play\u2011offs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FCF set me the goal of trying to qualify for the World Cup,\u201d revealed Sidaner. \u201cOur chances are slim. Football in Oceania has made significant strides over the last three or four years because everyone had the same realisation: \u2018Oh! There\u2019s an automatic qualifying spot now,\u2019 and so everyone has strengthened. You have to finish in the top two in your group, and the side that reach the final will almost certainly need to beat New Zealand. The gap between us and them has widened significantly over the last ten years.”<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re still going to give it our all. It\u2019s a fantastic opportunity,” added Sidaner, whose team were unable to compete in the OFC Nations Cup due to the recent unrest on the island.<\/p>\n
Resilience in the face of adversity
\n\u201cOur last competitive match was back in December 2023,\u201d recalled Sidaner. That outing came in the final of the 2023 Pacific Games, in which he led his charges to a 7\u2011\u06f6 penalty shoot-out success over the Solomon Islands following a 2\u2011\u06f2 draw.<\/p>\n
On 10 October, Sidaner\u2019s troops will finally be back in action in their opening World Cup qualifier against Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost a year will have passed, and it\u2019s been terrible for us, but the spirit here is unwavering, and they\u2019re used to getting by with limited resources,” he explained. “They have that resilience. We mustn\u2019t forget that we qualified for the U-17 and U-20 World Cups despite having played no football, having not trained and having had no league action since May. That was an amazing achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n
A well\u2011structured system
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve put so many things in place for young players, particularly the two new academies that have been open since 2020, one for boys and one for girls,\u201d explained Sidaner in reference to the infrastructure introduced by the FCF.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that we now have more resources is also thanks to FIFA and, especially, the FIFA Talent Development Scheme designed by Arsene Wenger. It gives every talent a chance to flourish. There are geographical, contextual and cultural limitations here in Oceania, but FIFA provides associations like ours with financial support, which can help us bring over players based in France, for example. These significant developments simply didn\u2019t exist 15 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only will Sidaner be able to call up players based domestically, who form the core of his squad, for the upcoming FIFA World Cup 26 qualifiers, but he will also have the chance to select players who play their football abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m striving to get the balance right,\u201d he said. \u201cOf the 22 players who\u2019ll be involved in the Papua New Guinea match, 13 of them play their football domestically. Not only is that a source of pride, it\u2019s also worth drawing people\u2019s attention to. These lads haven\u2019t played a single competitive match in five months and have managed to stay on top of their game thanks to their dedication, commitment and desire, but it hasn\u2019t been easy.”<\/p>\n
“Although our players who\u2019re based domestically might not have the same reputation and pedigree on paper, they\u2019re right up there in technical terms.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m talking about the likes of our goalkeeper, Rocky Nyikeine, and midfielders Fonzy Ranchain and Morgan Mathelon. Other key members of the squad who play professionally in France include C\u00e9sar Zeoula and Georges Gope-Fenepej. They\u2019re the two standout names or the big brothers within the team if you like. We also have Joseph Athale, who enjoyed a good season in France\u2019s National 2 last year (the fourth tier of French football). He has been part of the national\u2011team set\u2011up for some time now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much like Brazil, the national team rely on the right blend of domestic and overseas-based players as they strive to deliver their own version of the jogo bonito, New Caledonian style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brazil is a vast country of some 220 million inhabitants \u2013 and almost as many footballers. The country\u2019s men\u2019s football team currently sit fifth in the FIFA\/Coca-Cola Men\u2019s World Ranking, and they have lifted the FIFA World Cup\u2122 on no fewer than five occasions. Tiny New Caledonia has a population around 270,000. The men\u2019s national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1032604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-1032597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1032597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1032604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1032597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1032597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1032597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}