I was a paramedic before falling into football while backpacking – now I’m about to face ex-Chelsea star Hernan Crespo

3 months ago 22

ALBERT RIERA left his job as a paramedic in Catalonia to go travelling for a year in New Zealand.

While most twenty-somethings who leave Europe for travel end up sightseeing, maybe getting a bar job to pay the bills, Riera wound up winning the Champions League.

a man sits at a desk with a soccer ball in front of a sign that says tedak

Albert Riera left Spain for New Zealand in 2010[/caption]

The diminutive 5ft 8in midfielder, not to be confused with the ex-Manchester City and Liverpool star of the same name, had balanced his ambulance work with being a part-time footballer in Spain’s fourth tier.

But after landing a one-year visa to head to New Zealand, he had no intention of playing football Down Under.

After his dad pointed him in the direction of Auckland City’s Catalan coach Ramon Tribulietx, however, he ended up somewhat reluctantly sending over footage of his games.

Tribulietx liked what he saw enough to offer him a trial, and Riera never looked back.

“I thought that would be it,” Riera, now 40, admitted while chatting to The National. “But after one week he said that he wanted to sign me for the rest of the season – two months.

“My friends said, ‘We’ve come to travel, not to play football’. I said, ‘Look, in two months I’ll finish and then we’ll hire a van and travel’. In the meantime, we won the Oceanic Champions League and I travelled to New Caledonia, to Tahiti for free. Football was letting me travel.

“At the end of the season, we still hired the van and goofed around New Zealand where you work for people in return for accommodation.

“We were in a hippy community in the bush and we were gardening, cleaning, chopping wood, making buildings. We were also packing kiwi fruits – you soon get sick of them.

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a soccer player wearing a shirt that says hi-chew

Riera went on to earn a contract at Auckland City[/caption]

“We’d work night shifts for 10 hours per night just to save more money to travel again.

“The idea was six months in New Zealand and six months travelling back to Spain via Asia – Tibet and places like that.”

Having doubted that he’d even be good enough to make Auckland’s squad, Riera found himself being offered an opportunity to stay for the following season.

And after thriving for part-timers Auckland, Riera was incredibly handed the opportunity to turn professional at the age of 29.

a soccer player with the number 9 on his shorts

The Spaniard turned professional with Wellington Phoenix aged 29[/caption]

a soccer player wearing a jersey that says jeep on it

The midfielder played against Juventus in the 2014 A-League All-Star Game[/caption]

‘I THOUGHT IT WOULD GO NOWHERE’

After impressing in a pre-season friendly against Wellington Phoenix, Riera was offered a trial by the A-League outfit.

His intention to move back to Spain was flipped on its head, when Scottish coach Ernie Merrick told him after just one day that he’d be offering him a contract.

During his subsequent time in the A-League he was called up to their All-Star team, which enabled him the opportunity to play against Juventus – swapping shirts with legendary Italian midfielder Andrea Pirlo.

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Following three years with Wellington, Riera decided that the brutal travel schedule had become too much for him – and opted to rejoin Auckland.

After hanging up his boots in 2021, by this point a New Zealand citizen, Riera became manager of Auckland.

Having won three OFC Champions Leagues as a player, he subsequently added two more as a coach.

This week he has taken his side to Abu Dhabi, where they will face Asian champions Al-Ain in the first round of the Club World Cup on Sunday.

The match will see him pit his managerial wits against former Chelsea striker Hernan Crespo, who has been coaching the Emirati side for just under a year.

Last year they fell 3-0 at this stage to Saudi outfit Al-Ittihad, who boasted the likes of Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante and Fabinho among their ranks.

“We’re realistic, but I’ll tell my players to compete as well as we can, Riera said of this year’s task. “I remember Crespo as a player, one of the great Argentina strikers. He was a busy No9 running behind all the time, full of energy. I’m happy for my team to be playing his.”

On the dreams that could lie ahead, Riera said: “It’s way harder now, but we’re only three games away from playing Real Madrid to become world champions. You never know in football!”