After making his international debut for his country just last year, England based Stoke City midfielder Scott Wara is proud to represent Fiji at the OFC Men’s Olympic qualifier 2019 on home soil. 

Wara made his debut from the bench in a 1-1 draw with the Solomon Islands at ANZ Stadium in Suva on September 5, 2018.

“I am 19 years old currently playing for Stoke City championship club in England,” he said.

“Just come here for camp preparing for the Olympic qualifier and hopefully we can be successful and that’s really our main goal here.”

Born Fijian, the midfielder has fond memories of his journey up the ladder of professional football in England.

“I moved to England from a very early age, I think before my first birthday, I really had an interest in Rugby originally but slowly through school mates I moved to football,” Wara revealed.

We moved to Stoke at one point this before I joined the club and then I got accepted into the academy. I went for trials and I got accepted in ever since then it’s just been great, I have been just going through the ranks and just learning, learning my trade, learning how to play football as a center-back cause originally I used to just play for fun but then become something I took very seriously.

“It’s great to be at Stoke, you train with some great players, very experienced players, players who played in the World Cup so it’s great to be around that kind of environment.”

The young defender was identified by former national team coach Christoper Gamel who called him up into the fold of the Fiji football set up.

Like any other young footballer, Wara is wearing the Fiji jersey with pride.

“It means a lot to be representing my country first of all and to have a chance to go into the Olympic that’s not what many people can say they have done they are an Olympian.

“It’s definitely something that I have always dreamt about to be in the Olympic. To represent my country as well is a great honour to me, to my family we’ll be taking great pride in that,” he added.

Playing at home in front of their home support, Wara believes the team bonding within the Fiji camp is positive leading into the first match against Tonga.

“There is definitely there is good vibes around the camp, very positive vibes everybody is confident. The confidence is very high at the moment. I think that’s the key going into the first game we have to be confident and we have to make sure that we can get the result that we want hopefully we can score some goals”

“and hopefully we can keep some clean sheet, hopefully it’s a great day and that first game is one of the most important so hopefully we can get off to a great start,” the 19-year-old stressed.