Football: Napier-born Glen Rolls lands dream job with Spain's LaLiga to promote beautiful game

The Spanish ambassador to Australia, Manuel Cacho Quesada (left), with Hawke's Bay-born Glen Rolls who is a LaLiga delegate to promote soccer in Australia and New Zealand. Photo / Supplied

Take a closer look at Glen Rolls' life map and you can plot a pathway rugby has helped create for him to not only represent New Zealand but also Spain.

But in the past year Rolls has switched tact from the funny-shaped ball to the beautiful one, finding traction with LaLiga (Spanish) soccer.

The 31-year-old from Napier has assumed the mantle of delegate of the LaLiga Global Network for Australia and New Zealand based in Sydney.

Rolls is part of a global drive that began in 2016 to boost the profile of the professional arm of the Spanish code, the brainchild of LaLiga president Javier Tebas.

Tebas had established eight offices around the world but felt the gospel wasn't spreading fast enough for his liking from the shores of Spain so he appointed 44 delegates to bolster its presence.

"Our challenge is to increase revenue to avoid losing talent," was his catch-cry in launching the crusade.

The enormity of the exercise and the success of Rolls is perhaps best illustrated in the disclosure that more than 10,000 candidates from across 127 nations had applied for a position.

"It was quite an interesting process because almost 13,000 people had applied. It was almost like a big brother-type of thing and quite an intense process," says the bloke who considers himself a "Napier Men's High School (Napier Boys' High)" graduate.

The prospects were progressively whittled down from 800, 600 and then 150 who were asked to attend a day-long activity seminar in Madrid before the cull of 60 candidates.

"All of those 60 who were selected were in a hotel for three months for a formation period before the 44 were appointed."

The selection process, Rolls says, was an intense exercise in itself that exposed them to LaLiga "master class" knowledge and structures which he is putting into practice.

The Lincoln University graduate from Christchurch, who has an MBA in sports management, has a penchant for all sports but, having lived in Spain for nine years, inevitably found himself gravitating towards the country's No 1 code.

"I've been to many different games in LaLiga and it's just amazing."

Roll says simply entering a stadium at the height of a game in itself is an out-of-this-world experience.

"Football definitely grew on me in Spain. I don't want to put the All Blacks down but I think the football fan is just more passionate.

"They have organised chants from the first minute to the last and they'll also be singing. It's almost like the Barmy Army [England cricket] supporters, basically."

However, he stresses the "ins and outs" of sport are pretty similar no matter whether it's soccer, rugby or even the LaLiga juxtaposed with other major leagues around the world.

"The number and the amounts are probably a little different, of course," says the administrator who four years ago attended the Universidad Europea de Madrid (university of Europe) in Madrid to complete his degree.

Napier Boys' High School first XV rugby captain Glen Rolls takes on Hastings Boys High School tacklers in 2004. Photo / File

The former NBHS first XV captain, who also is a former Bay and Canterbury age-group rugby representative, says without doubt soccer is a religion in Spain.

"It's not just the Real Madrids and the Barcas that take it so seriously as religion. We've been putting a lot more emphasis in many different games now.

"You can now go to most games of LaLiga to find the same level of passion at every stadium so people do take it very, very seriously and are very passionate about it."

Rolls says LaLiga is zeroing into the China market, considering it to be the biggest owing to its status as the biggest population in the world.

Singapore is the hub of the the eight offices LaLiga has established but he is in contact with all his Asian counterparts.

Part of the strategy is to align the kick-off times with the Asian markets for better traction.

"For the New Zealand timing, it doesn't sound that weird timing because it's at 1 o'clock but if you are familiar with the Spanish culture and the Spanish way of life — if you do anything before lunch time or during 3 to 4 o'clock time frame — it's almost like the lunch and the siesta which is a very big part of the Spanish culture."

Consequently tweaking kick-off times makes it a win-win situation with the Asia and Pacific markets to LaLiga matches.

Rolls is mindful soccer isn't the No 1 sport in New Zealand and Australia as it is in parts of Europe and South America.

"It's a long-term thing to implement the project so if it takes three or four years then so be it."

He considers the English Premier League (EPL), Bundesliga (Germany) and Serie A (Italy) as their major rivals but, to LaLiga's knowledge, doesn't think others have a drive on the ground to the extent to which LaLiga has embarked on.

"Historically in Australia and New Zealand they have been the strongest competition because that's where it culturally aligned and, obviously, with the language as well."

With the success of dominating European competitions on the field with their robust clubs, he says LaLiga are focusing on the off-the-pitch platforms.

Rolls says EPL is the No 1 televised league globally but as of late last year LaLiga had claimed the No 2 rung "quite comfortably".

LaLiga's revenue for the last financial year was 3.662 billion euros. Even its derby matches have their own rivalries and selling points.

"The amount of money the UK market receives from its domestic market is probably bigger than what we get from ours [LaLiga]."

However, he says, the LaLiga project is designed to close the gulf with EPL, something he suspects they have been incrementally achieving in the past year and will continue to do so over the years.

"The information market is very important for us."

His love for rugby saw him play for the New Zealand under-17s and Hurricanes Schools' teams before representing Spain international XV and sevens sides, after meeting the three-year residency qualification criteria.

Rolls was a flanker in the XVs format and forward in the abbreviated version of the code in a sport that also has helped build his individual template.

"Thanks to rugby I am who I am and, I guess, if you play a team sport for long you learn different values and skills such as teamwork, integrity and respect.

"The list goes on on those values rugby offers but now, I guess, I'm working in a different team environment even though I'm working alone in the Australian and New Zealand market."

Rolls says things people learn in sport continue to define who they are throughout their lives.

The son of Vicki and Curly Rolls is married to Spanish wife Saila and they are expecting their first child, a baby daughter, "any day now".

His sister, Bronwyn Hantz, of Auckland, has two children and also is expecting another so his parents already are grandparents.

They intend to travel to Sydney, where Glen and Saila Rolls are based, to greet their soon-to-be-born daughter into the world.

It's exciting times but Saila, who hails from the north west of Spain in Galicia, wanted to have her baby in her country of birth. But for now the Bay boy is riding a euphoric wave in the LaLiga ocean where beIN Sports is the main broadcaster.

"It is a dream job. I guess when I went back to uni the goal was to work in a sport industry with such an organisation."

However, Rolls says, for a Kiwi, thinking about football on a global scale isn't the norm.

"I got there and it is a dream job. LaLiga is certainly one of the leading sporting organisations in the world.

"It's right up there with the NBA and the NFL in the [United] States and, obviously, the EPL so it's a privilege to be representing them on a world stage, 100 per cent."

Glen Rolls shows his true LaLiga colours. Photo / Supplied

While his commitment is to his Northern Hemisphere employers from Sydney since June last year, Rolls hopes to return to the Bay some day to give something back to his hometown.

"Football is a growing sport, not only in Australia but also in New Zealand so it is a very important market to us in the future. It's a game for everyone. It's inclusive."

Setting up academies and clinics to help nurture the code's growth at a grassroots level is high on the LaLiga agenda.

"We like to help with our know how and knowledge in areas where perhaps [clubs] aren't too strong so we don't see the local leagues as competitors but as allies in terms of wanting to grow together for the future."

That also entails developing the social network to enhance the brand for a more solid rapport with the fans.

"We have some of the best players and teams playing in our league but it's about sharing the knowledge ... and it sounds a lot easier than it is.

The growth of junior and female ranks, he believes, indicates soccer will be an even more popular code in a province where a club such as Napier City Rovers have captured the imagination of national and international players and clubs.

"Women's football is one of the things we kind of concentrate on moving forward. It's becoming very big in Spain," he says, adding a match had enticed a crowd of 25,000 fans recently.