Wood supported by family tree

‘ It was a big decision but is what most parents would do for their child.’ CHRIS WOOD’S MUM JULIE

AS Julie Wood puts it from her England home, ‘‘there’s a lot of factors that have to be in place for a Kiwi to make it over here’’.

She would know, having followed her footballing son, Chris, since he left New Zealand in 2008 to join the academy at West Bromwich Albion, a Birmingham club who were then in the English Premier League.

Nine years on, the 25-year-old has just completed a breakthrough campaign with Leeds United, where he scored 30 goals in 48 appearances, took them to the verge of the second-tier English Championship’s promotion playoffs and collected the club’s player of the year award.

At the moment, he is in Russia with the All Whites at the Confederations Cup, carrying the hopes of a nation whose football stars have usually been defenders or midfielders, with the notable exception of Wynton Rufer.

Getting to those places has required a long journey that probably wouldn’t have been possible had he not had family with him in England.

‘‘We spoke to a couple of people before we made the decision to come over, asking what do you think we should do, and they said if there’s one piece of advice, it’s that one of you travels with Chris to support him, so that’s what we did,’’ Julie said.

Initially, Chris’s dad, Grant, stayed behind, to see his sister, Chelsey, complete high school but, after a couple of years trying to follow his son’s progress from afar – he listened in over the phone as Chris made his Premier League debut in April 2009 – Grant headed north as well.

Before he left New Zealand as a teenager, Chris played his football at St Paul’s Collegiate, a private school in Hamilton with a roll of around 700; clubs Cambridge FC and Hamilton Wanderers during the winter; and Waikato FC in the national league in the summer.

At St Paul’s, he was coached by Mike Groom, a former All White, who believes his success can best be summed up as self-belief.

‘‘We had a free kick and it was in the centre circle. Chris took it and the ball went straight above the goalkeeper’s head and he scored. The thing was, who shoots from the centre circle?’’ Groom said.

‘‘Only someone who has an incredible sense of self-belief and that’s something that was in his DNA. He might have missed a couple of chances but what made him so unique and so successful, was that it wouldn’t diminish his confidence.’’

Groom believes it goes a long way to explaining why he has been able to succeed in an environment where so many other New Zealanders have failed.

‘‘[As a young footballer in England] you’ve got to go to a lot of strange places, there’s a whole lot of new people there and new coaches that come and go. If that’s not an assault on your self-belief, I don’t know what is,’’ he said. ‘‘But he was able to negotiate that obviously and I’m not sure you can teach or coach that.’’

With the All Whites playing in Europe this month, Julie has been able to watch Chris represent his country in person for the first time since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

‘‘It was a big decision but is what most parents would do for their child to have an opportunity to live their dream,’’ Julie said.