Darren Bazeley has been to many youth World Cups.
With the New Zealand U17s, he went to Nigeria 2009, Mexico 2011 and United Arab Emirates 2013.
With the U20s, he went to New Zealand 2015, South Korea 2017 and Argentina 2023.
Now, he is just a matter of months away from leading the All Whites into the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico – their first since 2010 and only their third in history.
It has been quite the journey for the 53-year-old from Northampton, who made almost 300 appearances for Watford between 1989 and 1999.
Bazeley moved to New Zealand with his family in 2005
He later played for Wolves and Walsall and, after leaving the latter in November 2004, was invited to the other side of the world by former Saddlers team-mate Danny Hay, who had been appointed captain of the newly-formed – and now defunct – New Zealand Knights.
Accompanied by his wife and two daughters, Bazeley made the trip, open-minded.
“I just fell in love with the place straight away,” the one-time England U21 international tells Sky Sports.
“As a family, we’d always planned to probably move somewhere with the sun and the beach, somewhere probably in Europe – and then when we came here.
“They offered me a contract, it all worked and we decided to jump and move across the world back in 2005. The girls were five and seven at the time, so it was a good time to move, but it’s a long, long way – I don’t think you can get any further away!
The 53-year-old played for Wolves from 1999 to 2002
“We settled pretty quickly – it’s a beautiful country to grow up and live in.
“We became permanent residents after a couple of years and then got our citizenship done pretty quickly. We call ourselves New Zealanders now. This is home for us.”
Bazeley – who speaks with the twang you would expect of a man that has spent two decades in the country – retired in 2008, after a spell at Waitakere United, who are also no longer in existence.
He had already dipped his toe into coaching during his playing days at Watford, where there was “a real ethos of players giving back”, but it was not long before he started to think about forging a career on the other side of the touchline.
“When I finished playing up in Auckland, I got a job pretty quickly with, I suppose what you’d call the local FA as a development coach, and I was coaching local teams as well
Bazeley previous worked as assistant to current Thailand head coach Anthony Hudson
“Funnily enough, we were based in the same building as New Zealand Football and after about a year, I got asked if I would help out with the New Zealand U17s, who were training locally, two or three times a week.
“In 2009, that team qualified for the U17 World Cup and, because I’d been helping out, the coach [Stephen Cain] asked if I’d like to come to Nigeria and help out as an assistant coach. I jumped at that, stayed in the programme and, the following year, became the official assistant coach.”
When fellow Englishman – and current Thailand head coach – Anthony Hudson took charge of the senior team, he implemented alignment with the U17s and U20s, which saw Bazeley begin to work with the All Whites for the first time.
That took him to the 2017 Confederations Cup and the intercontinental play-offs for the 2018 World Cup, with a 2-0 defeat to Peru prompting Hudson’s resignation. He took the job at Colorado Rapids, and Bazeley followed as his assistant.
New Zealand were beaten by Peru in their 2018 World Cup qualifying play-off
Via a stint in Australia as assistant to former Wales international Carl Robinson at Newcastle Jets, Bazeley was back in New Zealand by October 2020. The aforementioned Hay – then All Whites head coach himself – appointed him as assistant and U20s head coach for a second time.
There was a review and a restructure following the failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. Hay did not reapply for his job and, after a spell as interim head coach, Bazeley was given the role on a permanent basis. “It’s been an amazing journey,” he says.
He led the team out in his own right for the first time in Auckland on March 23 2023, before a 0-0 draw with China.
“It was something maybe I thought I’d never be in that position to do,” Bazeley adds.
“I’d been involved with the team for a long time and standing for the national anthem – which I’ve done now maybe 140 times across the different age groups – is always an amazing moment.
“I was so proud to it for the first time.”
There have been 26 more games since then, of which New Zealand have won 12 and drawn six.
In only two of the other nine games have they lost by more than a two-goal margin – 4-1 away to Sweden in June 2023 and 3-0 to Mexico in Pasadena, California in September 2024.
Bazeley respectfully plays down the ease with which his side qualified for next year’s World Cup.
They beat Tahiti, Vanuatu, Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia to take Oceania’s only guaranteed spot – and did so by scoring 29 goals and conceding only one.
“They are different challenges,” he insists.
“We were heavy favourites, we had all the possession, we had all the chances and we scored goals. But we knew that was a job we just had to do to be able to put us on that next platform. A new chapter started in June with games against Cote d’Ivoire and Ukraine.
“The hard thing for us as a national team is we don’t get many international teams that come and travel to New Zealand to play, so most of our games are away from home, which makes it tough with performances and results. But over the last few years, we’ve been growing.”
Next up is a friendly against Colombia – ranked 13th in the world – at Inter Miami’s Chase Stadium on Saturday. Three days later, they face 23rd-ranked Ecuador at New York Red Bulls’ Sports Illustrated Stadium.
Only two of Bazeley’s squad for those games play in their home nation – Francis de Vries of Auckland FC and Alex Rufer at Wellington Phoenix. Veteran striker Kosta Barbarouses is at Western Sydney Wanderers in Australia, along with Storm Roux, who is at Central Coast Mariners.
Otherwise, the bulk of the players are based in Europe, including six who play in the Sky Bet EFL and two in Scotland.
How does he keep track?
“I’ve got a really good analyst who’s able to get video footage of pretty much any player in the world and he puts together really good seven or eight-minute video packages for me, so I can watch all the action and know what they’re doing.
Liberato Cacace joined Wrexham from Empoli in the summer
“I watch a lot of football. Every weekend, I’m watching the Premier League, Championship, MLS, plus I’m watching the A-League. We’ve got players in France, Norway, Denmark, Serbia, Holland, Scotland, USA.
“I don’t get to travel too much, but if we’re touring in Europe, I’ll try and tag on games before or after so I get to see quite a lot of the environments.
“Last year, we were in Europe and, the week before, we watched Reading and Nottingham Forest, Marko Stamenic when he was at Red Star Belgrade, then Liberato Cacace when he was at Empoli.
“We don’t have hundreds of players – we track 50, 60 players around the world – so when we pick squads, we’re pretty consistent with selection and what we have is this cohesiveness.
Tyler Bindon – who has 20 caps – is on loan from Nottingham Forest at Sheffield United
“A lot of our players grew up together, they’ve got this bond and this understanding and this team camaraderie. They’re so connected when we come together. That’s something we maybe have that’s a little bit different to a lot of other national teams.
“Because we’ve got so many players that don’t live here now, when we get together in international camps, we spend a lot of time connecting them back to New Zealand and the culture.
“We’ve got some really good young players that have played together for the last four years and are going to stay together for the next 10 years in the national team, which is amazing for New Zealand moving forward.”
One of those who will not be in the USA this month is Chris Wood, who misses out with a knee injury.
Chris Wood has scored a record 45 goals for New Zealand since his debut in 2009
Bazeley lights up with the mention of New Zealand’s all-time top scorer, with 45 goals, who needs just one more cap to bypass Ivan Vicelich’s record of 88.
“From a New Zealand point of view, this might be something that maybe never happens ever again, having a striker who has scored 20 goals in a Premier League season.
“He’s such a great lad, so humble and a real Kiwi. He’s so passionate about playing for his country and has helped put New Zealand football on the map. He is so loved.
“It’s funny because I don’t think people really grasp what he’s actually achieved. I think people still don’t quite realise how global the game of football is, but it’s changing.”
New Zealand will find out their opponents and schedule for the World Cup on Friday December 5, when the draw is made in Washington DC.
A first ever win in the competition is, naturally, high on the agenda – but Bazeley, and all of those around him, wants more.
“We want to go to the World Cup to do something. We’re not just there to attend. We want to qualify for the knockout phases,” he says.
“To do that, we know we’re going to have to beat teams that are ranked in the top 30, top 40 in the world. We’ve started being able to compete, but we need to take that next step and win, so beating the Ivory Coast was big.
The All Whites beat the Ivory Coast 1-0 in June
“While we know it was just a friendly, that gives everyone the belief we’re heading in the right direction and we can compete with, and beat, better-ranked teams.
“Everything we’re doing on a daily basis is going towards that first win. We’ve got a great campaign plan that we’ve put together and everything we do is now looking towards achieving that result.
“We try not to waste any time, any moments. It’s about making sure, when we get to the World Cup, we’re ready to go and perform and achieve what we want to do.”
Bazeley may have worked at six youth World Cups, but he has never worked at the World Cup.
“I’ve been watching World Cups since I was six years old – it’s the biggest event in the world and we’re going to be there.
“If I’m honest, I’m not sure if it’s really hit home yet that we’re going to be on that global stage. It’s exciting and I can’t wait.”
