Central United

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Central United FC

Full name

Central United FC

Nickname(s)

Central

Founded

1962

Ground

Kiwitea Street
Sandringham, Auckland
New Zealand
(Capacity 3,500)

Chairman

Ivan Vuksich

Manager

Aaron McFarland

League

Northern League

2006

2nd





Home colours





Away colours

Central United Football Club (formed in 1962) is a leading football (soccer) club based in central Auckland, New Zealand.

The football club, formed by a group of young Croatian immigrants from Dalmatia, played initially in the lower division of the Northern League before rising to become one of New Zealand's top football clubs by the late 1990s.

Central United FC were the New Zealand champions in 1999, 2001 and were runner-up in 1998.

Central United FC also won the Chatham Cup in 1997, 1998, 2005 and 2007 and were runners-up in 2000 and 2001.

Their home ground, Kiwitea Street, is located in the suburb of Sandringham.

Currently, Central have a very good team which includes Richard Gillespie, Luiz del Monte, Jason Hayne, Jacob Mathews, Joel Mathews, Sam Campbell, Keryn Jordan, Kara Waetford, Salesh Kumar, Grant Young, Chris Dale, Craig Dale, Joshua Balhorn, Josh Ming, Hugo Littlejohn, Sam Mathews, John Baptiste Niyonsaba, Greg Uhlmann, Lance Heslop, Diego Rinquest.

Coach: Aaron McFarland Assistant Coach: Peter Martin Manager: David Stringer Physio: Katherine Ludbrook

Some Central United football players have extensive international experience, such as Luiz del Monte (Brasil) played in the United States and in Finland before coming to New Zealand.

Past and present players include Wynton Rufer, Chris Zoricich, Ivan Vicelich, Danny Hay, Ross Nicholson, Miro Major, Paul Urlovic and Fred de Jong, Thomas Doyle, Zane Sole, Godwin Darkwa, Walid Omar, Micahel Freeman, Lance Heslop, Matthew Kolose, Daniel Sarich Paul Vodanovich, Ross Nicholson and Luka Bonacic

Sam Heenan was also in the squad but is a member of Eastern Suburbs. A central team recently won the Under 14 section of the Adidas +Challenge tournament in Britomart and reached the quarter finals of the World competition, only losing to eventual winners South Africa (represented by an Orlando Pirates youth team). They then went on to tour Europe and Asia, with 6 wins 2 draws and only 1 loss. The tour was a big success and gave the young players a lot of experience.