Napier City Rovers’ goal-scoring sensation Oscar Faulds
Video / Neil Reid
Oscar Faulds travelled around the world to trial for a pro deal. The footballer told Neil Reid how Covid-19, then a brutal club call, ended his hopes in Denmark and Sweden.
Sharpshooter Oscar Faulds doesn’t mince his words when describing the footballing heartache he endured during a globetrotting month.
The 22-year-old’s blistering form — scoring 21 goals in 14 Central League appearances for Napier City Rovers — had the Swedish-born Kiwi flown to Denmark by a second-division club offering a potential fully professional deal.
The deal could have had Faulds go from earning $150 a week for Napier City Rovers — the cap New Zealand Football imposes on domestic Kiwi clubs — to earning a six-figure sum; with the average pro wage in Denmark being more than $100,000.
But the highly driven 22-year-old’s aim of a pro contract in Denmark, and then two weeks later in another trial with a second-division club in Sweden, came crashing down firstly after contracting Covid-19, then becoming a victim of the at-times fickle nature of pro sport.
“An agent contacted me and talked about a club in the Danish second tier that wanted me in for a trial,” Faulds, who is now back with Napier City Rovers, said.
“They paid for my flight over.
“But I got sick in my first training with Covid and was in isolation. I only did two trainings and basically got the feedback, ‘You’re good enough, but we just haven’t been able to see enough of you because you’ve been sick’.
That race was successful for the Bill Robertson-coached team, who kick off their 2024 National League campaign against Western Springs on Sunday at Bluewater Stadium.
But what wasn’t successful was Faulds’ second trial offered to him in Scandinavia during a drama-filled four weeks away from Hawke’s Bay.
After hearing he hadn’t been signed by the Danish club, Utsiktens BK — who play in the Swedish Superettan — offered him a trial for a fully professional contract.
Faulds impressed, being offered a contract and travelling five hours from his base in Sweden to the city of Gothenburg to pose for photos to be released to media when his signing was publicly released.
But hours before the contract was to become binding on the last day of Fifa’s June 14-August 30 transfer window, club officials pulled the offer.
Oscar Faulds has been a goal-scoring machine for Napier City Rovers, winning the golden boot of the Central League. Photo / Neil Reid
“I trained with the team, took a signing picture, and then two hours before the window closed, the assistant coach called me and said, ‘Sorry the club won’t pay for you’,” Faulds revealed.
“I’ve been a bit gutted about that.
“But I’m a big believer in if it wasn’t meant to be, it wasn’t meant to be. I think something better will come out of it.”
To rub salt into Faulds’ wounds, the goal-scoring sensation of the 2024 Central League — who topped the league’s golden boot race despite missing the final four matches of the competition — then caught strep throat.
Napier City Rovers fans will be hoping for many more goal-scoring celebrations from Oscar Faulds. Photo / Neil Reid
“I’ve been very unlucky with illness,” he said.
“It’s been gutting. When you’re basically about to sign a pro contract, and then you get sick directly after it ... it’s just like a punch in the stomach.”
He flew back into Napier on September 14, returning to the training pitch with his Napier City Rovers teammates three days later.
Faulds will be the most travelled player of the 2024 New Zealand top-flight domestic season when he lines up on Saturday.
Swedish-born Kiwi Oscar Faulds says the strong brotherhood that runs through the Napier City Rovers squad bought him back to the club. Photo / Neil Reid
Between his initial arrival in Napier in February for Central League pre-season training — and then the recent drama-filled return trip to Scandinavia — he has clocked up more than 43,000km in international travel.
He wants to put the latest trip behind him, stressing he was “excited for this new chapter” with Napier City Rovers in the National League.
The feeling goes both ways.
While his teammates and the club’s fanbase would have wanted him to succeed in the trials, the excitement levels, when he arrived at Napier City Rovers’ awards night hours after he flew back to Napier, were huge.
Oscar Faulds (right) watches on Napier City Rovers teammate Kieran Richards is fouled during his side’s 3-0 loss to Wellington Olympic in March. Photo / Neil Reid
“I’m happy being back with the team, coming back to the National League and hopefully taking the team to a good place in the league,” he said.
“They’re a great bunch of lads. I like the guys ... I’ve missed them and can’t speak highly enough of them.
“They’re up there for the best team I’ve been in, in terms of team spirit. It just feels like a family.”
With 21 goals, Faulds will go into the National League as the second-highest scorer out of the Northern, Central and Southern leagues the 10 qualifiers come from.
Napier City Rovers (left to right) Sam Lack, Harry Mason, George Andrew, William Tonning, Ben Graney and Oscar Faulds in their side’s dressing room at Bluewater Stadium. Photo / Neil Reid
The highest scorer at the end of the season will win New Zealand Football’s golden boot award.
Cashmere Technical’s Garbhan Coughlan scored 26 goals in the Southern League — the country’s least competitive regional league where score blowouts have been frequent.
Before his globetrotting for fully professional contract trials in Scandinavia, Faulds was linked as a potential signing with the Wellington Phoenix A-League club.
He spent a week on trial with them in July, saying having a chance to train alongside experienced All Whites such as Kosta Barbarouses was a “good experience”.
Faulds said his priority now was to give it all he could during the upcoming National League for Napier City Rovers, then see if he could ignite his pro football ambition in Fifa’s next transfer window in January.
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 30 years of newsroom experience.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
