Billy the kid’s footb
A Kiwi teen has played his way from Birkenhead United on Auckland’s North Shore into one of Europe’s glamour clubs – in just a couple of years, reports Ben Stanley
LYING PRONE on the football pitch, Mario Lemina couldn’t take it anymore. Ola Toivonen was hacking away at his hips, before tumbling over him as the ball squirted away.
With a short, sudden jab with his left arm, Lemina punched Toivonen – square in the nuts. Ouch.
In any football match around the world, a vicious action like that warrants only one thing: a red card.
The Ligue One clash between Rennes and Olympique Marseille in Rennes, France, is no different.
As Marseille’s Lemina walked off the pitch, his manager Marcelo Bielsa and assistant coaches stood, discussing a substitution.
Two weeks ago Auckland teenager Bill Tuiloma sat on the bench at Stade de la Route de Lorient in Rennes, watching it all unfold.
With the game poised at 1-1, the 19-year-old midfielder thought they would probably sub on a defender to protect the result. Not him, surely.
A trainer called his name ‘‘Tuiloma, vous etes en place’’ (‘‘Tuiloma, you are up’’). The Kiwi stood up, and pulled off his jacket.
Tuiloma felt a little nervous, but mostly excited. He walked up to the trainer, who gave him some basic instructions.
The departing player passed him. Off came Argentine winger Lucas Ocampos.
On came Bill Tuiloma – on to the football pitch at Stade de la Route de Lorient and into Kiwi football’s record books.
MONTHS earlier Bill Tuiloma sits in a room overlooking the training fields at Centre d’entrainement Robert Louis-Dreyfus in Les Callilols, one of Marseille’s eastern suburbs, with a grin on his face.
The training grounds were named after a popular French billionaire who took over Olympique Marseille in 1996 when it was mired in a match-fixing scandal – and turned it into one of the biggest forces in French football before his death in 2009.
It’s early October last year, and Tuiloma is thinking about what it would be like to make his debut for Marseille.
What it would be like to be the first New Zealander to play professional football in France. To make history.
‘‘Well, firstly, I was just shocked when they told me I was going to be on the bench for the first time,’’ Tuiloma tells the Sunday News, recalling his appearance on Marseille’s bench, against Lyon, in late 2013.
‘‘To be on the bench for the first team – I didn’t think that would happen in the first four months of my contract.
‘‘But my debut? Man. I’d love to make my debut. Hopefully it comes soon, but I’ve just got to keep on working. It will come.’’
On the main road side of the training complex is a car park filled with Aston Martins, Ferraris and BMWs; incredibly expensive sports cars owned by incredibly well paid football players.
Players such as French star striker Andre-Pierre Gignac and Ghanian vice-captain Andre Ayew, whom Tuiloma has trained with all season.
Guys that, as of that game against Rennes – and another sub appearance against Stade de Reims last weekend— are now as brothersin-arms on the football field: fellow Les Phoceens.
You might think the excitement and nerves of a debut for one of the biggest clubs in France would make his time on the pitch a blue for a 19-year-old Kiwi Samoan from the Auckland suburb of Beach Haven. Not for Tuiloma – he remembers his debut clearly.
‘‘I did a good few tackles and touched the ball quite a lot,’’ he says, via phone, last week.
‘‘I made a few good passes. It was just eight minutes all up – but it was a great feeling to know I was playing in the French league – and also the first Kiwi to enter Ligue 1. I’m also Samoan – so the first Samoan as well.
‘‘I feel really blessed, and thank God for His blessings.’’
It may have only been eight minutes of action, but it was more than enough time for Tuiloma, who appeared on the Marseille bench five times before getting on the park, to etch his name in Kiwi footballing history.
Bar Wynton Rufer’s exploits at Werder Bremen in the late 80s and early 90s, Kiwis have never been in the ranks of European football’s biggest clubs.
Former All Whites captain Ryan Nelsen did star for Blackburn, Tottenham and QPR and current skipper Winston Reid has been Head strong: Bill Tuiloma could barely believe his time had come when he got to make his debut for one of the biggest clubs in Europe a fortnight ago, playing in Marseille’s 1-1 draw against Rennes a fortnight ago. linked with a move to away from West Ham to one of English football’s Big Four clubs, but to play for a former European Cup winner such as Marseille is big news.
A young midfielder with a strong pass and an astute eye for the unfolding game, Tuiloma has risen through New Zealand youth ranks with ease – and praise.
But the road to Marseille started in London for Tuiloma, who was a Birkenhead United midfielder as recently as two years ago.
Premier League clubs Queens Park Rangers and Burnley wanted to sign him in mid-2013, but visa issues meant neither move could happen.
Tuiloma’s French connection came through QPR, however. They helped him secure a trial in the south of France thanks to their link with Marseille after the loan move of controversial midfielder Joey Barton the season before.
Marseille liked what they saw, and in July 2013, the 18-year-old Kiwi, who briefly played the Los Angeles Galaxy’s youth system, inked a two-year deal with the tentime French league champions.
But my debut? Man. I’d love to make my debut. Hopefully it comes soon, but I’ve just got to keep on working. It will come.’ BILL TUILOMA ON MAKING HIS DEBUT FOR MARSEILLE
THE time, the only thing Tuiloma even knew about Marseille – and France in general - was that Barton had played there.
‘‘My French – it was a disaster, Early days: Bill Tuiloma’s talents were obvious. Playing for the Young All Whites in their 2-0 win over Tahiti Janaury 2011 to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico later that year helped increase the international awerness of him. aye,’’ he says. ‘‘The first time I came here I only knew ‘oui’.’’
Tuiloma, who has seven international caps for New Zealand, was put straight into Marseille’s reserve team – and fulltime training with the main squad.
He remembers the first few months being a steep learning curve.
‘‘The first month at training I was getting a pretty sore head,’’ he says.
‘‘I had a sore neck – my head was on a swivel. But I thought, ‘I’m here, it’s happening – so I’ve got to adapt to it quick.’
‘‘The first month it was pretty