A beautiful game in any language  

By Leanne Richards - WITT journalism student  

Samba footie: Kaponga soccer player Saul Chame, left, of Brazil, swoops in to contest possession with Waitara captain Peter Hanover.  Photo / Leanne Richards

IF YOU want to turn out for Kaponga’s soccer club it might pay to take Spanish lessons – more than half of the village’s Taranaki division one side is made up football-mad South Americans.

Names such as Abarno, Oliveira, Figuerdo and Valverde might seem better suited to a Brazilian national team, but nine Uruguayans and a couple of Brazilians have boosted the ranks of the Kaponga Soccer Club and helped ensure its survival.  

Club president Mark Bellve says the South Americans began arriving about five years ago as part of a dairy farm work scheme and wanted to play football in their spare time.  

“It just started off with one or two and grew from there … word got around that they were welcome to play for us and they all started coming.  

“It’s helping keep the club afloat really,” says Bellve who has played for Kaponga since 1978 and is its longest-serving player.    

Uruguayan Pablo Abarno, 30, acts as chief interpreter for the foreign contingent.  

“Pablo is coaching one of the junior teams which the kids find quite interesting because he’s pretty talented and he talks different … 11-year-olds think that’s pretty cool,” says Bellve.  

Abarno says he loves it in Kaponga and has renewed his work visa three times over, although this is likely to be his last year in New Zealand as he wants to take his new farming skills back to his homeland.  

Uruguay has a proud footballing heritage and hosted the first ever World Cup in 1930 which it duly won, beating Argentina 4-2 in the final.  It also won the title in 1950, this time beating Brazil.  

Abarno says the way his countrymen feel about football is similar to New Zealand’s passion for rugby.  

“When the All Blacks play here (there is) nobody in the street. All people (are) watching the TV. Uruguay (is) the same about soccer.”  

He says he enjoys playing football for Kaponga, but confesses: “It’s not so much the soccer.  I feel like friends … I feel like (I’m in) a family.” 

Leanne Richards is a Witt journalism student