‘Golden generation’ or not, there’s no time like the present
If any of the younger players in the current All Whites squad go looking up the history of the team on New Zealand Football’s website, two words will pop out. ‘‘Golden generation’’.
As in: ‘‘[Coach Danny] Hay has a golden generation, with a record number of European-based players, hoping to continue the legacy of the silver fern on the world stage’’.
The origin of the phrase, at least in a football context, appears to lie with a group of Portuguese players led by Luis Figo and Rui Costa, that emerged in the late 80s and early 90s and that went on to star in Europe in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Most famously, it was used with regard to England between the 2002 and 2010 World Cups, when players such as David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney were in their primes at club level, but couldn’t make it past the quarterfinal stage at the game’s biggest international event.
There is often a sense the tag can become a burden, placing expectations on groups of players based on early glimpses of their potential, and that it is better off being applied in retrospect, once they’ve achieved success.
‘‘The term should only be used once you have won something,’’ Lampard said in an interview years after his England career ended. ‘‘Then you can be called the golden generation. Look at ’66 when [England] won it. That was a golden generation.’’
So is there a golden generation of New Zealand men’s footballers out there at present?
Some of the players that have emerged over the past five years certainly possess more technical ability than their predecessors and many have been involved in making history at age-group level, but this writer’s view would be that the honour can only be bestowed once they make it to a World Cup, like their predecessors in 2010 and 1982.
The phrase golden generation first started to be used about his current crop of players in 2019, when a group born between 1999 and 2001 went away to that year’s Fifa Under20 World Cup in Poland with high hopes and beat Honduras and Norway in the group stage before losing to Colombia in the first knockout round in a penalty shootout, after an even match.
Joe Bell was the captain of that side and is one of 10 players born 1999 or later in the current All Whites squad, which is in Doha,
All White Joe Bell
Qatar, preparing for a one-off World Cup qualifying playoff against Costa Rica next week.
Asked about the golden generation tag, Bell says before anything else that he’s happy to receive the compliment: ‘‘It’s obviously really nice’’.
But there is a hesitation to accept it before anything has been achieved at senior international level.
‘‘I wouldn’t go as far to put the tag on just yet, but it’s obvious that there is a group of us, and I think it’s a testament to the development of football in New Zealand, that we’re producing players like that.
‘‘It’s really nice having a group of boys all in the same age that are also really talented footballers,’’ he adds. ‘‘It makes these trips a ton of fun, and just speaking for myself, it’s something you get really excited for when you’re getting back with the national team, because you’re really just getting back with your friends and doing the thing you love.’’
Defining the boundaries of a generation can be a tricky business. All Whites such as Clayton Lewis (born 1997) and Logan Rogerson (born 1998) have plenty in common with those younger than them, but 1999 stands out as a pivotal year and as good a starting point as any.
Nine players born in the final year of the 20th century have played for the All Whites, making it the best represented birth year of the 90s.
Four are with the squad in Doha – Bell, centre back Nando Pijnaker, midfielder Callum McCowatt and forward Alex Greive. The other five are midfielder Sarpreet Singh (who would be there if he wasn’t injured), goalkeeper Michael Woud, fullbacks Dane Ingham, Kelvin Kalua, and Dalton Wilkins. Born the following year are fullback Liberato Cacace and midfielder Elijah Just, who are in the squad at present, as well as Max Mata and Jamie Searle, who each have a single cap. Forward Ben Waine is the only All White from 2001 to date, and is in the squad to face Costa Rica, as are Matt Garbett and Marko Stamenic who were born in 2002, the same year as Ben Old, who made his debut in March. Hay has been responsible for giving 13 of those 17 players their debuts during his 13 matches in charge. He had worked with 12 of them in some capacity before he was appointed All Whites coach in 2019 and has started five of them on average during his time in the role. There was a knowing eye-roll when he was asked about the golden generation tag and while you’re unlikely to hear those words pass his lips, Hay certainly understands where the sentiment is coming from. ‘‘I’m probably the No 1 fan – a person that’s super excited,’’ he says, having noted last year that ‘‘this current generation has got a huge amount of potential, but potential, the word itself, leaves you wanting to see more’’.
‘‘I’ve got a huge amount of belief and trust in them,’’ says Hay. ‘‘That’s why I’m prepared to start
‘‘It’s really nice having a group of boys all in the same age that are also really talented footballers. It makes these trips a ton of fun.’’