All Whites have new coach
Fritz Schmid has been confirmed as the new All Whites coach on a four-year contract.
The 58-year-old Swiss has been unveiled by New Zealand Football as the successor to Anthony Hudson, who opted against staying on after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
New Zealand Football have followed a predictable path in their recruitment process, hiring a highly-qualified European coach with a connection to technical director Andreas Heraf.
Schmid previously worked as an assistant coach for the Austrian national team, where he would have rubbed shoulders with Heraf.
‘‘I am excited to be here in New Zealand and build on what the team has achieved in the last four years. The All Whites are an exciting team and have huge potential. Our ultimate goal over the next four years is to qualify for the Fifa World Cup in 2022 and I am confident we can achieve this,’’ Schmid said.
Schmid has spent the majority of his career as an assistant, predominantly to fellow Swiss Christian Gross, and his role with the All Whites will be his first head coaching position in more than 16 years.
Schmid first joined Gross at Grasshopper in 1995 as a fitness coach, before attempting to follow him to Tottenham Hotspur for the 1997-98 English Premier League season, only for his application for a work permit to be denied.
He branched out on his own from there, obtaining his Uefa pro licence in Italy and spending two seasons as head coach for Swiss second-division side SC Kriens, but rejoined Gross at Basel in 2002. They spent seven seasons together there, winning four Super League titles.
From there he jumped over to that job in Austria for two years, before spending the last four years as the technical director at the Football Association of Malaysia.
Schmid’s assistants will be under-20 coach Des Buckingham and under-17 coach Jose Figueira.
Their first assignment will be a behind closed doors friendly against Canada in Spain next month.
His appointment prompted All Whites great Wynton Rufer to say some All Whites players could be disappointed by New Zealand Football’s decision to again ignored local candidates.
Speaking from Brazil, Rufer reinforced his opinion that Hudson’s successor as All Whites coach should have come from within New Zealand as it would have greater benefits to the local game in the long run.
Although they will not admit it publicly, Rufer said the current players would have preferred a Kiwi coach as well.
Instead, New Zealand Football ended their ‘‘global search’’ by hiring Schmid, who has worked for all three of the Super League clubs that Rufer played for during his decorated career.
‘‘I think the players will be disappointed as well. They’re not going to tell you because they’ve got enough crap to deal with at their clubs. With Chris Wood and Winston Reid they’re not going to say anything negative. But I know how they think,’’ Rufer said.
Rufer said Ramon Tribulietx ‘‘has done a great job’’ with Auckland City and deserved to be in the conversation but his preferred candidate was former All Whites defender Danny Hay, who coaches Eastern Suburbs.
However, Rufer said Schmid, a ‘‘mate from way back’’, deserves as much support as possible over the next four years in the lead up to the 2022 World Cup.
Labelling the current crop as the strongest squad New Zealand has ever produced, Rufer said Schmid is a good chance of taking the All Whites to Qatar.
‘‘Now that he’s got the job it’s cool. You’ve got to support whoever is the coach,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ve got good players. We’re a good team now. The goal at the end of the day is to qualify for the World Cup.’’
Rufer spent more than a decade of his professional career in Switzerland, and played for three clubs – Zurich, Grasshopper and Aarau – where Schmid was employed as either an assistant or under-20 coach.
However, their paths did not cross until recent years, when they met through their work with Fifa.
‘‘I’ve seen him over the last few years in Malaysia and I’ve caught up with him a couple of times on Fifa duties,’’ Rufer said.