Darren Bazeley, an Englishman who has proudly adopted New Zealand, is set to write a unique piece of World Cup history. At 53, Bazeley will become the first manager in history to take charge of a nation at the Under-17s, U20s, Olympics, and now a senior men's World Cup.
Despite New Zealand being the lowest-ranked nation at the tournament, Bazeley is determined to leave a legacy that will inspire future generations. Considering that nearly 1,300 coaches have managed across these four competitions, his achievement is remarkable.
"When someone told me that no-one had done that - been a coach at U17s, U20s, U23s - and now senior level, it's not something you set out to do but it's quite a cool fact and I might make a quiz one day," he said with a smile. "Everybody in our current squad, I've probably coached four years ago, six years ago, eight years ago or even 10 years ago."
Bazeley's journey includes six World Cups, two Olympics, and the Confederations Cup, but never a senior World Cup. "I've watched every World Cup since I was four years old, but never been to a World Cup and I'm really excited to go there," he added. "1982 was probably the first World Cup I remember the most. It's the biggest event in the world, can't think of anything bigger because football is the one truly global game played in every country with the whole world watching."
Born in Northampton, Bazeley is a former defender for Watford, Wolves, and Walsall. He moved to New Zealand in 2005 and now speaks with a strong Kiwi accent. He spent the tail end of his playing career there and has dedicated his professional coaching life to the nation. Married with two daughters and a grandson, Bazeley feels fully integrated into New Zealand life.
"We feel like Kiwis now, we've been here 21 years but I grew up in England, grew up there and all my family is English and emigrated in 2005 when I was 33 when I left England," he explained. "I had a young family, we had two girls aged five and seven, pretty good age because they had just started school and it was a good time to move. That was 2005 and we've been here ever since."
Bazeley notes the cultural differences: "It's a really outdoor world there, we are spread out because there's only five million people in the country and rugby is still No.1, cricket is strong and football has grown and is now the biggest participation sport. It's booming here."
Bazeley was the only English manager set to be at the World Cup until Graham Potter led Sweden through the play-offs. New Zealand faces England in a warm-up friendly in Florida before taking on Iran, Egypt, and Belgium in Group G. Bazeley credits his coaching style to his playing days under legendary manager Graham Taylor at Watford.
"Anyone at Watford during those days has Graham Taylor running through them. I can still hear his voice and when I look back at Graham, he was a super manager and he was ahead of the game in regards to man management," Bazeley recalled. "He was a very good coach, he drove us but all of the players loved him and he had this way of getting the best out of us. He got to know you, your family, he knew your dog's name and knew a lot about the players. On coaching courses now, they teach you about getting to know your players and he was doing that 30 years ago."
Bazeley believes members of the current squad, including Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood, were inspired by New Zealand's last World Cup appearance in 2010. He feels a responsibility to inspire the next generation. "A lot of the current group talked about 2010, 2009 and the play-off game against Bahrain was the catalyst because we qualified and a lot of our younger players that was their first memory of that type of football," he said. "This World Cup could be the catalyst again. A lot of media attention, it will be broadcast and that's the responsibility we have knowing that we can go to the World Cup again and inspiring another generation by being successful."
New Zealand has set lofty goals: "We want to get out of the Group. It's only our third World Cup ever, '82 was the first and then 2010, South Africa, was the last time we were at the World Cup. We've not been to many. But the last time, we were undefeated, we drew three games and that was amazing and we've still got people who were there, people who played at that World Cup, like Simon Elliott, who is one of my assistant coaches now. That's a memory that's forged into history for New Zealand to be undefeated at World Cup and the challenge for us is to go further than that. Can we get out of the Group? Can we get through the knockout phase? See how far we can go."
Despite being the lowest-ranked team, Bazeley remains optimistic: "We went into the draw knowing we are lowest ranked team in the tournament, whoever we got was going to be tough. But we also know that on our day, if everybody is fit and available, we are a good team and we can match teams. We've had some good results against good teams but it is tough and we just need everyone fit and available."
At the heart of New Zealand's campaign is Chris Wood, the captain and talisman. Bazeley praises him: "He epitomises a Kiwi. So humble, hard working, honest and the humility that comes with that is great. He's a team player. He's scoring goals in the Premier League and that's not something New Zealand has had and it might be a long time before we get that again. Not entirely sure people here entirely understand what Woodsy has done in the past few years. He comes into camp, he's just Woodsy, one of the lads and is a leader. He has no ego, when we come into camp, everyone is equal and everyone has a lot of respect for him."
Bazeley shared a funny story about Wood: "He's so good because he gives the fans time, he gives the media time and there's a funny story where he came off in one of the qualifiers, went straight to sign autographs, because a lot of the young kids want to see him, meet him and want his autograph. He went in to sign autographs and ended up going up slightly in the stand, left the field of play and the referee booked him for signing autographs!"
