Football Ground Map
Football Ground Map
Let's face it. Soccer is not the most celebrated sport in Oceania.
So when someone makes it as a regular in a world-class European league, it indicates a monumental effort.
One such name who has been an exceptional representative of Oceanic football has to be Winston Reid.
The New Zealand International has played for West Ham for around a decade and has now been playing in Europe for over 15 years.
Let us briefly look at his career and how he has been able to play at the top for such a long time.
Reid was born in New Zealand, home of the best online casinos nz, but like many others started his footballing journey in Europe as his parents moved to Denmark when he was ten years old.
After playing for the youth team of SUB Sønderberg, Reid moved to Midtjylland where he enjoyed a terrific few years.
He started his professional journey with them as a 17-year-old teenager as the club itself was still young and budding.
Slowly but surely, he was making a mark in the Midtjylland setup and it was not until the 2008/09 season that he truly became a regular in the side with over 20 appearances in the Damish league.
After playing another year for the club, West Ham came along in 2010 to sign the All Whites captain for an undisclosed fee rumored to be in the region of £4m.
Like his spell in Denmark, progress came slowly for Winston Reid in London.
After making his debut in August of 2010 for the Hammers, it was not until the end of the year that Reid got regular minutes at the club.
As West Ham got relegated in 11/12, Reid stayed put and took it as a way of establishing himself at the club.
And when the club returned to the Premier League, Reid became a pivotal part of their defence winning the Hammer of the Year award in 2013 and regularly captaining the side.
In fact around 2015 Reid was regularly being linked to clubs like Arsenal and Tottenham due to his exceptional last ditch defending and physical attributes.
He could also play out from the back and make offensive runs from deep. So he was comfortable in both a defensive and attacking setup seamlessly adjusting to the need of the side.
However, in the latter stage of his time at West Ham, he was regularly plagued by injuries and could not return to his past best.
So while he is still connected to West Ham, the Hammers fans might have seen the last of him.
In 2020, Reid wanted to move on from West Ham and get some football under his belt in the USA, home of high roller online casinos.
And so a move to the MLS and Sporting KC came. He made his first appearance for the side against Minnesota United and started eight games for the club before returning to West Ham.
There were talks of retaining him for Sporting KC but it was perhaps the injury he had in August plating for Kansas side that may have made them reluctant to sign him permanently.
Winston Reid has the option of choosing between Denmark and New Zealand and he picked the All Whites.
He started for them in the 2010 World Cup and continued to remain a regular for the Kiwis as he became the captain of the side after the retirement of Ryan Nelson.
But like his club career, injuries have plagued his national stint as he has only managed a little over 20 International appearances.
Hopefully he can avoid any injury for the remainder of his career and pass on his experience to younger folks.
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