NZ & Taranaki link to Canadian men’s football team

Phil Gayton

Simon Eaddy attended Spotswood College from 1985-1989 playing football for the College and also for Moturoa AFC and now represents Canada. He was an outstanding goalkeeper throughout his playing career.

He began his professional career in 2000 playing for the Kingz FC in the national league. Simon was selected in the National League All-Stars Squad in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

In 2002 he moved to Canada to play in their professional league for the Ottawa Wizards. The Wizards had an outstanding year in 2003, winning the CPSL undefeated only the second time this has happened in the league’s history. Simon was awarded the leagues "Goalkeeper of the Year award" only conceding 10 goals throughout the entire 2003 season.

In 2006, Simon returned to NZ to play for Waitakere United in the NZ Football championship. With Waitakere, he won the Premiership title in 2007 & 2008. As the NZFC premiers in 2007 Waitakere was given a berth in the inaugural OFC Champions league. They beat Ba FC of Fiji in the final becoming the first OFC league champions. This qualified Waitakere for the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. In 2008 Waitakere retained their OFC league title.

In 2008, Simon’s first manager role was with Auckland City AFC as a goalkeeper coach and soon after he was involved in coaching with the NZ Mens' team under head coach John Herdman and was part of the NZ Olympic Games team to the 2008 games in China.

In 2012, Simon returned to Canada to join their womens' programme under coach John Herdman. Simon had a very successful spell with the Canadian womens' team attending the Olympic Games in 2012 (England) and 2016 (Brazil) plus the FIFA Womens' World Cups in 2015 (Canada) and 2019 (France).

Simon followed Herdman again and switched to the Canadian Mens' programme in 2019, and last month Canada qualified for the 2022 FIFA Mens' World Cup (their first time since 1986) to be played in Qatar from 21 November to 18 December.