Darren Bazeley

Darren Bazeley

• Coach Profile

Immersed in the round ball game from a young age All Whites Head Coach, Darren Bazeley, still lives and breathes football.

“I grew up in England where football is everything and developed a love for the game which I still have today.”

After signing a professional playing contract at age 14, Bazeley says he had a pretty good football career mostly in England playing at Watford, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Walsall.

It was a decision to come to New Zealand in 2005 in the later stages of his playing days with his good friend Danny Hay which first created a bond with New Zealand.

Bazeley played for the New Zealand Knights in the inaugural A-League season and played every minute of the club’s 21 matches in the first 2005-2006 season.

After two seasons the Knights franchise closed its doors (which then created a license opportunity for the now Wellington Phoenix to rise from ashes) and Bazeley closed the door on his playing career.

“Football was all I’d ever done and I wanted to stay involved. The next step for me was coaching.”

Bazeley began coaching at a local and federation level before quickly moving in 2009 into the New Zealand Football set up as an assistant coach of the NZU17 Team. The youth team playing at the World Cup in Nigeria reached the World Cup competition knock-out stages for the first time.

What has followed over the course of fifteen years (with a couple of international stints interspersed in that time period) has been time working through all the jobs in the NZ environment – as assistant or head coach of the NZ U17, NZ U20 and NZ national sides.

Bazeley holds the FIFA A Coaching License and has recently completed the OFC Pro License which is the highest football coaching license globally.

These qualifications have enabled Bazeley to think deeply not only about the technical and tactical side of football but how to grow his own leadership and management style which he believes has been critical as he has gone through the coaching ranks.

In July 2023 after an extensive process, Bazeley was appointed to the head coach of the All Whites after a period of being the interim coach.  

As head coach he is charged with bringing together the national side with the goal of playing and performing in the 2026 World Cup jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

“I’m lucky because most of the players in the All Whites I have relationships with because I have coached them in different environments through U17 or U20s.”

It’s these existing relationships Bazeley is leaning on with players scattered all over the world which he needs to keep tabs on.

“Currently we’re tracking over 60 players which is great because it’s the most professional players New Zealand Football has ever had playing at one time.”

With the help of a ‘great analyst’ Bazeley watches most of these players games getting clips of about 10minutes per 90-minute game of all the action they’re involved in.

With a laugh that Bazeley admits he watches a lot of football but it gives a great indication of how the players are tracking.

One of the major challenges as the head coach is when the five international FIFA windows arise (most over a 10-day period) is the task to pull the team together to perform as quickly as possible as a cohesive unit.

Every FIFA International window the team has together they also play two games. Combined with travel and recovery there’s not a lot of time to be together on the training pitch – about 15 training sessions a year.

“The biggest thing we work on now is connection. Both connection to each other and being connected back to NZ.”

With Bazeley as head coach the All-Whites environment is about shared leadership saying we are focused on developing leaders and learners so that when players come into the environment they’ve empowered to use their voice.

“The players have all got buy in to how we play because the players are involved in creating our playing style.”

Connecting back to New Zealand has become a focus with Bazeley as he’s cognizant that so many young players now leave Aotearoa early to pursue their football dreams.

“Chris Wood is a great example of an All White who has now lived off shore longer than he has lived in New Zealand.”

Bazeley reflects that although the All Whites are a smaller global football power, football is the biggest participation sport in New Zealand and with two franchises in the A-League there are now more pathway options available to young players.

“The A-League is a great opportunity to start and likewise for players to end their careers at home. It’s doubling the opportunity to start playing professionally which is just so good for our sport.”

About to welcome his first grandchild into the world as a Kiwi, Bazeley calls himself a New Zealander now.

Having coached every national age group and senior side the now Kiwi originally from North Hampton in England, is taking one game at a time as the qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup has begun.

With a detailed strategy to maximise and build momentum with every international window over the next two years in place with Tony Readings as his assistant coach, Bazeley is operating an action learning cycle committed to getting better every tour. 

“We have short windows to get the performance rhythm over the next two years but that’s exciting.”

“We’re really trying to develop great decision makers as players and management. It’s a great challenge which I love.”