KEY POINTS:
Had New Zealand Football's awards been held six months earlier, it's a safe bet Shane Smeltz would not have been named Player of the Year.
The Phoenix striker this week won the top award ahead of Ryan Nelsen and Chris Killen, capping a sensational turnaround in his fortunes
in 2007.
In May, Nelsen had just led Blackburn to an FA Cup semifinal, while Killen was on the brink of signing for Celtic. In contrast, Smeltz had just been released by Conference strugglers Halifax.
But scoring both New Zealand's goals in a 2-2 draw with Wales that month proved the catalyst for a contract offer from the Phoenix - and Smeltz says adversity in England has helped him make the most of his opportunity.
"In England, I had good times and some rough periods and that's held me in good stead when I came back here," says Smeltz.
"Simply spending time over there and not having everything go my way has given me more desire to succeed. I've got a family now, I've been given a good chance and I want to do well."
And do well, he has. He scored three goals in New Zealand's World Cup wins over Vanuatu - one in Port Vila last Saturday and another two in Wellington on Wednesday.
Smeltz has netted six goals in his last four internationals and has also scored five in the A-League to be just one behind Golden Boot leader Alex Brosque.
But it wasn't the All Whites Smeltz dreamt of playing for when growing up on Australia's Gold Coast. He owned a Socceroos jersey and cheered on the boys in green and gold as a teenager.
And while he made a Queensland team for the first time at under-16 level, and attended the Queensland Academy of Sport, opting for New Zealand looked the best way to make the step up to international football.
Parents Edward and Helen are New Zealanders, although Smeltz was born in Germany while his father served in the US Army. Smeltz lived in Auckland from the age of one to six, playing his first games of football for the Oratia club, before his family moved to Australia.
His uncle alerted New Zealand Football to Smeltz's eligibility and he was picked for the New Zealand under-20 team in 2001. He admits lining up in a white shirt for the first time felt a little strange.
"But I fitted in with the boys, we all got on well and I'm still playing with a number of them.
"I've never looked back."
That year's under-20 team, which included current All Whites Killen, Tim Brown, Ben Sigmund, David Mulligan and Jeremy Christie, narrowly missed qualifying for the World Cup, beaten in extra time by Australia.
Smeltz remains something of a Socceroos fan: "If New Zealand's not involved, I like to see them do well. I grew up in Australia. My family's there - my parents live in Cairns - and it still feels a bit like home."
Smeltz made his NSL debut for the Brisbane Strikers aged 18 but left two years into a three-year contract after falling out with coach John Kosmina.
He revitalised his career playing the 2002 season with Napier City Rovers, winning the National League Player of the Year award and the Golden Boot with 20 goals.
That earned him another NSL contract, this time in Adelaide, but he missed the entire second season with a groin injury.
Kosmina's arrival at Adelaide and the 18-month gap between the NSL's demise and the A-League's launch prompted Smeltz to seek his footballing fortune in England.
After a brief false start at League Two club Mansfield Town, Smeltz landed at AFC Wimbledon in the seventh tier of English football. He did well at Wimbledon, scoring a hat-trick on his debut on his way to 26 goals in little more than a season.
That helped pave the way for a move to Conference side Halifax for the 2006-07 season. Having made the previous season's playoffs for a place in League Two, Halifax had high hopes but their campaign quickly unravelled.
"Early on, the team didn't really perform and the manager panicked a little. We had a chat and he said he was going back to the players from the season before but things didn't really get any better.
"There were also off-field dramas with the stadium being redeveloped and the chairman leaving."
Halifax avoided relegation by four points. Smeltz's wife Nicole was pregnant with their daughter Bonnie and they decided to return to this part of the world.
"I still believed in my ability but it just wasn't going to happen for me there."
That self-belief proved well founded and the best six months of his football career culminated this week in him superseding the country's two highest-profile professionals to claim the Player of the Year prize.
