Batram Suri (born 2 November 1971) is a

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as either a striker or a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. As one of the few Solomon Islandsers he played club football in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. He has almost 50 caps for the national team of the Solomon Islands. At the moment, he is the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

of the Solomon Islands women's national football team.

Playing career

Club

Suri is the most well-known player to come out of the Solomon Islands and has previously played in New Zealand for Richmond Athletic and the Football Kingz amongst other clubs (now the

New Zealand Knights New Zealand Knights Football Club (formed from the Football Kingz Football Club in 2004) were the only professional association football club in New Zealand before they became defunct. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, they played in the A-League ...

), in Fiji and Tahiti and has also played for Laugu FC in his native country.

International

Suri is also one of the

Solomon Islands national football team The Solomon Islands national football team is the national football team of the Solomon Islands, administered by the Solomon Islands Football Federation. The Solomon Islands national football team was founded in 1978. They were officially recog ...

's most successful players helping them reach the oceanic play-off final against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 2005. He made his debut in 1992 and collected over 40 caps, also scoring a fair share of goals.

Managerial career

On 16 June 2019, Suri was appointed as head coach of the Solomon Islands U-23 to guide them in the 2019 OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament from 21 September - 5 October 2019, to try to qualify for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Achievements

* Solomon Islands Player of the Year (1994) * New Zealand Player of the Year (1996) * New Zealand Top Goalscorer (1997 and 1998) * Oceanian Player of the Year: Fourth place (1996), Tenth place (1997 and 1998), Twelfth place (2002)

References

External links

* 1972 births Living people Association football forwards Association football midfielders Solomon Islands footballers Solomon Islands international footballers Solomon Islands expatriate footballers Football Kingz F.C. players Nelson Suburbs players Nadi F.C. players 1996 OFC Nations Cup players 2000 OFC Nations Cup players 2002 OFC Nations Cup players 2004 OFC Nations Cup players Expatriate footballers in Fiji Expatriate footballers in Vanuatu Expatriate footballers in French Polynesia Expatriate association footballers in New Zealand Solomon Islands expatriate sportspeople in Fiji Solomon Islands expatriate sportspeople in Vanuatu Solomon Islands expatriate sportspeople in French Polynesia Solomon Islands expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Women's national association football team managers {{Solomons-footy-bio-stub