Samoan national football team Photo: OFC Media via Phototek
By Craig Stephen
Samoa is no longer satisfied with being one of the 'minnows' of Oceania football and wants to regularly compete against the 'big seven' of the region.
Each Oceania Nations Cup or round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Samoa has to battle it out with Tonga, the Cook Islands and American Samoa to contest the main stage.
They did the job in the preliminaries of both of those competitions in 2024 were badly exposed when attempting to defeat the likes of New Zealand and Fiji.
"We are realistic as to where we sit just now," head coach Jess Ibrom says.
"We have a group of very young players, some of whom have just graduated from the youth ranks or are still there. Andrew (Setefano) is 37 and has been the captain for a long time and is the exception. But of the bulk of the rest of the squad are 23 and under."
Jess Ibrom (right) with assistant coach Asher Trotter Photo: Shane Wenzlick / Phototek.
Ibrom wants Samoa to climb the rankings ladder and as part of their ambitions, Samoa have a scouting policy that is bringing in talent from as far as Argentina and Germany.
It is a long-term plan, and the recent World Cup qualifiers showed how much they need to go.
The youthful team suffered successive defeats against Vanuatu, Tahiti and New Zealand, results that weren't entirely unexpected, according to the Englishman.
"We knew it was going to be a big, big challenge - we were the lowest ranked team in the competition, at 186. So, it was always going to a significant challenge. But it was a great experience for us and it was a good measure of where we currently are at."
The scouting mission discovered two potential stars on different continents. Alex Malauulu plays in Argentina's fourth tier and Pharrell Trainor is with German regional league side TSV Schott Mainz.
Alex Malauulu Photo: OFC Media / Shane Wenzlick / Phototek
Malauulu was found in Australia, where he was part of ACT's top team, Canberra Croatia, before moving to South America.
"He now finds himself in Argentina, which is brilliant because he is getting all that exposure to a different culture, language and, of course, it is a massive footballing country, and that will benefit him in the long-term. He started against New Zealand and he is only 18 years old, so he is going to be one of the hopes of the future," says Ibrom.
"Pharrell Trainor is getting great exposure in Germany, which is also, of course, one of the world's football powerhouses, and he will improve massively as a player over there."
Ibrom took on the coaching role only in August 2024 but he is familiar with the game in Samoa, having acted as the country's technical director between 2020 and 2022.
Melbourne-born Greg Siamoa, meanwhile, plays in the Cambodian top flight with Life Sihanoukville.
The rest of the squad for the World Cup qualifiers were a mix of those based in Australia, New Zealand and Samoa.
Socceroo legend Tim Cahill's son Kyah Cahill was born in England while his famous dad was playing there but learned the rudiments of the game in the United States. Cahill junior pledged his allegiance to Samoa in 2022.
In the opening game of the qualifiers, in Port Vila, Samoa were only 2-1 behind before succumbing 4-1 to the Brian Kaltak-led Vanuatu.
Against Tahiti, ‘the heavens opened up’ Photo: OFC Media / Phototek.
Against Tahiti in Hamilton, they held the fancied French Polynesians to 0-0 for more than an hour, "then the heavens opened", said Ibrom. Tahiti, with some French-based players in their line-up prevailed by 3-0.
Against the All Whites in Auckland, Samoa were up against an enormous challenge in terms of resources and players.
The hosts' captain Chris Wood was scoring for fun for Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League while several others, such as Portugual-based Sarpreet Singh, have experience at the highest levels. They cantered to an 8-0 win at the Go Media Stadium.
"The All Whites are all professionals playing in top leagues around the world; we're all amateurs. We knew it was going to be a monumental challenge and realistically the challenge for us was to limit the amount of goals we conceded," said Ibrom.
In 2024, Samoa played a remarkable 10 times across the two competitions, but 2025 will be far quieter for those Pacific nations not involved in the World Cup qualifying semi-finals in March.
So Ibrom is hoping that the Samoa Football Federation can utilise the regular FIFA international windows by teeing up matches while he and his team continue their scouting missions by locating Samoan heritage players around the globe.
"For us, between now and the next World Cup cycle we want to compete as much as possible with the likes of Vanuatu, Tahiti and the other countries which sit around that tier."
Craig Stephen writes about football for a number of publications, and for RNZ. He is the author of Bombs and Boots, a book that tells how New Zealand football came of age in the 1960s and 1970s.
