By TERRY MADDAFORD
PAPEETE - Ivan Vicelich has crammed more into six years of international football - and a whole lot more in age-group teams before that - than most New Zealanders would contemplate in a lifetime.
Virtually from the time he turned his back on Liston College in West Auckland to
play the occasional game at Rutherford High, but more importantly for Waitakere City, Vicelich has had a soccer ball at his feet.
He was very much the "odd-job man" in the first season of the Football Kingz, the only player to appear in every game, and in a wide variety of roles, so it was no surprise when he was named the club's and supporters' player of the year.
The Kingz experience was, he agrees, another step in the learning curve for a player who first kicked a ball as a youngster at the Massey club.
That he adapted so well, whether playing an out-and-out defensive role, as the key link in the midfield engineroom, or even on the left wing, is a tribute to Vicelich.
While he started in all but one game for the Kingz - and came on after 30 minutes of the second match of the season - he never took anything for granted.
It is a philosophy he steadfastly retains in and around the All Whites team, of which he has become a regular member.
"Let's hope I can still be around in 10 years. But it is even more important that I continue to play well for New Zealand," says the 23-year-old, who shows a maturity far beyond those years.
"I never take selection for granted. If I'm dropped I will always talk to the coach to find out what I can do better."
Football has dominated Vicelich's life to such an extent that it is more than three years since he took a holiday.
"My friends think I'm lucky and that it's a great life. Sure, I have been privileged to go to the places I have.
"They think it is a holiday and struggle to accept that going to Australia [with the Kingz] every second weekend or coming to places like Tahiti can be difficult.
"We have few chances to get out and see things such as a tourist would," Vicelich says. "We have training - sometimes twice a day - and on match days we have to stay out of the sun and just sit around.
"Here [Papeete], for example, there are no television sets in the rooms. There is not much to do."
But this All Whites team, like many who have gone before, are a tight-knit group.
After his debut against the Danish Olympic team in Auckland as a 16-year-old, Vicelich has played throughout the Pacific and far-flung places such as South America and Mexico.
Away from football, the demands have been great. Apart from a couple of years working at a customs agency, Vicelich has struggled to hold what would even closely resemble a regular job.
His relationship with girlfriend Marisa has stood the test of time and distance.
"Those kind of things can be hard. It is not paradise.
"The reward is hearing your name read out," he says. "If it is not, you should be gutted. But once you are in, it is up to the individual to play well. That is something I'll always be trying to do."
No one could ever accuse Vicelich of anything less.
By TERRY MADDAFORD
PAPEETE - Ivan Vicelich has crammed more into six years of international football - and a whole lot more in age-group teams before that - than most New Zealanders would contemplate in a lifetime.
Virtually from the time he turned his back on Liston College in West Auckland to
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