Arsenal enlist Kiwi guru
All Blacks adviser Dr Ceri Evans has been snapped up by English Premier League giants Arsenal who have hired the ex-All White as a mental skills specialist.
Evans – who was once linked to Arsenal during a five-year playing stint with Oxford United while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University – has been in demand internationally as a sports pyschologist since helping the All Blacks win Rugby World Cup titles in 2011 and 2015.
Fresh from assisting new world heavyweight boxing champion Joseph Parker, Evans once worked particularly closely with ex-All Blacks captain Richie McCaw and featured in McCaw’s recent movie, Chasing Great.
Evans, 53, a forensic psychiatrist based in Christchurch, has also worked with Mercedes Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Arsenal have now enlisted him to help improve the EPL side’s mental strength – an area of weakness identified by the club’s veteran manager Arsene Wenger.
An Arsenal spokesman confirmed Evans’ hire to London’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
‘‘We are looking for new ways to progress and continue competing at the top of the game.
‘‘This involved every aspect of the way we work with our players and that is part of that continuous improvement. We will not discuss any detail of this work.’’
Evans was born in Christchurch and later moved to Nelson, attending Nayland College.
His father, Gwyn Evans, was a former professional footballer for Crystal Palace and later became New Zealand Football Association secretary-general.
His mother, Joyce Williamson, was a New Zealand table tennis champion.
Evans played in the New Zealand national league for a decade between 1979 and 1988, juggling his football with medical studies at the University of Otago.
He played 85 times for the All Whites between 1980 and 1993 and occasionally captained the national team and also became a karate black belt.
Evans earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University in 1989 and joined English secondtier club Oxford United, playing 116 games over five seasons while studying experimental psychology.
He later returned to New Zealand, settling in Christchurch with his family and working as director of forensic psychology for the Canterbury District Health Board.
Evans became a director of Gazing Performance Systems, an international mental skills consultancy, but has worked independently across a number of sporting codes, including international rugby, football, cricket, Australian Rules and rugby league, including providing assistance to the Warriors.
He helped coach Canada’s women’s football team to an Olympic Games bronze medal in 2012 after being recruited by Canada’s former New Zealand Football Ferns coach John Herdman.
A report on The Independent website said Evans practised an ‘‘anti-choke mechanism, which seeks to offer his clients a way of dealing with intense pressure and high stakes’’.
At Arsenal, he will be working with some top footballers, including German World Cup winner Mesut Ozil and Chile striker Alexis Sanchez.