Reid eyes return to club action after World Cup playoff
All Whites captain Winston Reid wasn’t planning on being without a football club for 12 months, and he wants to find one in the months ahead, regardless of whether the national men’s team qualifies for the World Cup.
Next weekend will mark the first anniversary of his last club appearance – 12 minutes off the bench for Brentford during the English Championship promotion playoff final against Swansea City.
The Bees won that match and headed to the Premier League, while Reid, who was on loan, went back to West Ham United, where he and his bosses were able to agree on a mutual termination of his contract last September.
Since his cameo at Wembley Stadium a year ago, Reid has played a total of eight matches – three for the OlyWhites at the Tokyo Olympics last July, where he was hindered by a knee injury, and five for the All Whites, including three as they won the Oceania World Cup qualifying tournament in Qatar in March.
Now based in Dubai in the Middle East, the 34-year-old is in the odd position of effectively being a fulltime international footballer, leading up to what will almost certainly be his last shot at playing at a second World Cup.
But as he prepared to head into camp with the All Whites ahead of their World Cup playoff against Costa Rica on June 14 [June 15 NZ time], he said his football career wasn’t riding on the outcome of that match.
After leaving West Ham in September, Reid was always going to be without a club until January this year, but he readily acknowledges that it’s far from ideal for him to still be in this position.
‘‘A lot of the places that I wanted to go, they were midway through seasons,’’ Reid said. ‘‘The problem was that spots were taken and with some of the options, it just didn’t come at the right time.
‘‘I would rather be in an environment that I could control myself and know what I was working towards, so that’s the route I went down.
‘‘Hopefully it’ll turn out to be the correct decision, but at that point in time, it was a decision that I felt that was the best for me.’’
Reid has continued to lead the way for the All Whites at the defensive end, even without playing on a week-in, week-out basis at club level.
He said that although he had missed being part of a team environment, he had also enjoyed being able to focus entirely on being available for his country during a crucial period.
As he looks beyond his looming international assignments, which include a friendly with Peru on June 5 and another pencilled in for June 9 before the showdown with Costa Rica, Reid said he had no particular destination in mind for continuing this club career.
The United Arab Emirates Pro League, where teams are limited to four foreign players, will hold a lot of appeal, given that’s where he now lives, but he indicated his family would be up for a move if required.
‘‘I haven’t set a geographic location in mind, it’s just something that has to fit in with the whole picture really.’’
Next month’s one-off match against Costa Rica in Doha will be Reid’s second intercontinental playoff.
He was absent injured when the All Whites were outclassed by Mexico in 2013, but played a full part in 2017 as they lost 2-0 to Peru in Lima after a 0-0 draw at Sky Stadium in Wellington.
‘‘I thought we had as good a chance as any to do something back then,’’ Reid said.
‘‘I thought we were wellprepared, and we had a good squad.
Obviously there were certain things that went against us on the pitch and off the pitch as well, but that’s part of football.
‘‘You live and you learn from those moments and this time around we’ll be well-prepared again, and hopefully we’ll be able to do it.’’
Reid is one of three players in the 26-strong All Whites squad named by coach Danny Hay this week for the Costa Rica playoff to have played at a World Cup, having started all three matches in South Africa in 2010 in a back three that also featured Tommy Smith.
Chris Wood was the other surviving player to have been involved back then, coming off the bench three times as New Zealand drew with Slovakia – thanks to a late header from Reid – defending champions Italy and Paraguay.