Bevan shoots from club to All Whites

If strikers rise and fall by the goals they score, Myer Bevan is on the up and up.

The 20-year-old has been included in the All Whites squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against the Solomon Islands, which is just reward for his remarkable run of late.

In the past 15 months, he has gone from Auckland club football, to the Nike Academy in England, and then on to Canada, where he is now a professional with Vancouver Whitecaps 2.

He has also represented his country at the Oceania under-20 championship and the subsequent World Cup, and at every stop, goals have been the constant.

There were 13 for Western Springs in the 2015 winter season, which had him among the best in the northern region as an 18-yearold, and four more the next year.

Then there were five, including a hat-trick, at the Oceania under-20 championship last September, where he was named player of the tournament; 25 during the 2016-17 season at the Nike Academy; two at the under-20 World Cup in South Korea in May; and two more in his first seven appearances in Vancouver.

‘‘He’s one of the only players I’ve worked with that’s got this real desire to score goals,’’ says Neil Emblen, who coaches Western Springs, and is an assistant with the national under-20 side.

‘‘You’ve got to put yourself in positions where you could get hurt, you’ve got to want to get in behind and make dynamic runs, and be able to receive and finish.

‘‘He wants to be good at all of those aspects of a centre forward’s game, and that’s why he is one. He’s just hungry.’’

What is more revealing is what when the goals don’t come.

‘‘There were times where I’ve had to say ‘are you all right?’ after games, and it’s because he hasn’t scored,’’ says Emblen.

‘‘The rest of his play could be perfect, and he could have led the line well, and really put happens in a good shift, but he’s got this mentality where he wants to score . . . he’s disappointed every game he doesn’t score.’’

Emblen says that while Bevan has the selfishness all good strikers need, he marries it with a work ethic that makes him an excellent team-mate.

All Whites coach Anthony Hudson first talked Bevan up as a contender for the senior team back in May, and while he didn’t make the cut for the Confederations Cup, it was clear he would be in the mix sooner rather than later.

About the same time, he signed with Vancouver Whitecaps 2, the reserve team for the Canadian city’s Major League Soccer franchise.

‘‘This is what for my country Bevan.

‘‘It’s been a dream since I was young, and it’s been a crazy last few months, but I’m so glad it’s all happened, and that I’m about to become an All White.’’ I’ve always wanted, to at the highest level,’’ play says