Auckland City’s FIFA Club World Cup campaign this December will provide a unique such opportunity for Spanish playmaker Manel Exposito. A four-year stint at the Nou Camp was highlighted by a first senior team start in a friendly against Porto, a match in which Messi also made his Barça debut. Now Exposito is facing the prospect of being on the same pitch as the 2010 FIFA Ballon d’Or winner once again, although this time wearing the blue of Auckland City.
The 29-year-old is leading a small coterie of Spaniards turning out in the unlikely setting of Auckland. Team mates Angel Berlanga and Albert Riera Vidal, as well as Auckland City co-coach Ramon Tribleteux, who brought Exposito down under, make up a quartet of Spaniards at the club.
City and crosstown rivals Waitakere United are by far New Zealand’s most successful clubs in the modern era. The pair have won all seven championships since the current national league, the ASB Premiership, was launched. It is a similar story at continental level, where the pair have shared four of the five O-League crowns, and it was April’s success against Vanuatu’s Amicale which catapulted Auckland, and Exposito, into an improbable scenario.
The Oceania champions must first see off the J-League representatives in the play-off if they are to win through to the latter stages and a possible meeting with the Spanish glamour side or any of the other qualified clubs thus far – Brazil’s Santos and Mexico’s Monterrey. And when did it dawn on Exposito that a dream meeting against the Blaugrana was possible?
“When I scored in the O-League final and I knew we would be champions, I actually started to think about it then during the game,” he says.
“I know it will be very difficult because we have to win against a Japanese team and then further matches. Barça is the best team in the world and who wouldn’t want to play against them? To be honest I never thought this could be possible and it would certainly be a dream.”
Come December it will be just on eight years since Exposito shared the field with Messi, as well as the likes of Bojan Krkic and Giovani Dos Santos, in the club’s second team. Exposito, who was unable to crack through the galaxy of stars which makes up the senior team at the Nou Camp, recalls with fondness the genius of the then 16-year-old Argentinian.
“Messi was very young, but he was brilliant even then,” Exposito says. “We tried to give him the ball all the time and of course he would score many goals.”
A foot injury kept Exposito out of Barcelona action for over a year, while an indifferent experience at third-tier club Cerro Reyes led him to seek new horizons. The perfect opportunity came knocking when former coach Tribleteux, by now long settled in New Zealand, suggested the man nicknamed Xino take his football journey down a completely different path.
It is a world away in every sense from the bright lights of Spanish football but Exposito is enjoying the experience. In less than a year he has learnt English, discovered the pleasures of life in New Zealand’s largest city and experienced the distinctiveness of football in the Pacific Islands.
“Coming to New Zealand was something new, a new country to enjoy and a new style of football,” he says.
“Auckland is a very nice place to live and everyone is friendly. It is like a big city and yet like a village in other ways, and of course so very different from Barcelona. Playing in the O-League has been a unique and amazing experience. Some of the island nations are poor but they are very passionate for the game.”
This year’s FIFA Club World Cup will be Auckland City’s third participation following Japan 2006 and UAE 2009. Remarkably, on each occasion Barcelona has also qualified for the showpiece tournament. Five years ago the Kiwis fell at the first hurdle against Egypt’s Al Ahlybut it was a different story last time in the United Arab Emirates. An opening win against local representatives Al Ahli was followed by a victory over African champions TP Mazembe Englebert as the Oceania side finished a credible fifth.
Incremental progress has been made over the past two tournaments but what do Exposito and his fellow team-mates hope to achieve in 2011?
“Initially, we have to put all our ambitions into the opener,” Exposito says.
“It’s very important for the club, the city and all the players to play against the best teams in the world. Hopefully, we can get more support for football in New Zealand and make it a little bit more like Spain.”
Story courtesy of FIFA.com.
For more on the world game go to www.fifa.com

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