Joe Zen Robert Bell (born 27 April 1999) is a New Zealand 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 plays as a

defensive 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 ...

for

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

club

Brøndby IF Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (, usually abbreviated to Brøndby IF (), is a professional association football club based in Brøndbyvester, Capital Region of Denmark. The club was founded in 1964 as a merger between two local clubs and was p ...

and the New Zealand national team.

Early and personal life

Bell was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England but holds dual citizenship. He was raised in

Wānaka Wānaka () is a popular ski and summer resort town in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. At the southern end of Lake Wānaka, it is at the start of the Clutha River/Mata-Au and is the gateway to Mount Aspiring National Park. ...

and

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, attending

Medbury School Medbury School, located in Christchurch, New Zealand, is an independent school for boys between Years 1 to 8 (ages 5 to 13).Christ's College, Christchurch Christ's College, Canterbury is an independent Anglican secondary day and boarding school for boys, located in the city centre of Christchurch, New Zealand. Founded in 1850 by Reverend Henry Jacobs in Lyttelton as a school for early settlers, ...

before moving aged 15 to Wellington to attend Scots College and play for the Phoenix. He started playing football as an eight-year-old for Ferrymead Bays.

Club career

Wellington Phoenix Reserves

Bell moved to Wellington to join the Wellington Phoenix Academy under the guidance of Jess Ibrom where he started playing for the Wellington Phoenix Reserves in the

New Zealand Football Championship The New Zealand Football Championship ( mi, Te Whakataetae Whutupaoro a Aotearoa) was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a m ...

for the 2014–15 season, playing 12 games with four starts. He played for the reserves for another two seasons, appearing 14 times in the 2015–16 season with 10 starts and eight times with six starts in the 2016–17 season. With the New Zealand football championship played over the summer, Bell played for

Wellington United Wellington United AFC is an association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand, that competes in the Central League. History Wellington Diamond United Wellington Diamond United was the result of the merger of Diamond and Zealandia/Well ...

in the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...

during the winter.

Virginia Cavaliers

Bell joined the

Virginia Cavaliers The Virginia Cavaliers, also known as ''Wahoos'' or ''Hoos'', are the athletic teams representing the University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers compete at the NCAA Division I level ( FBS for football), in the Atlantic C ...

who play in the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

in the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

. Bell started 55 straight games since joining the University. He scored six goals and had ten assists across three seasons, while also spending time with amateur club Charlottesville Alliance during the

2018 NPSL season The 2018 National Premier Soccer League season was part of the 106th season of FIFA-sanctioned soccer in the United States and the 16th season of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL). Elm City Express was the defending champion. The 2018 NPS ...

. Following his successful

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 whe ...

campaign, Bell drew the interest of several European sides, trialing with

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

side

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

and eventually being offered a contract. However, with the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

offering him a full scholarship at year's end, Bell decided to delay going professional to get his degree. Bell had a successful 2019 season with the Cavaliers as co-captain of the team which won the

ACC Coastal Division The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

and won the ACC men's tournament for the first time since 2009. The team ended the season winning 21 games, which was one shy of a school record. The Cavaliers entered the 2019 NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed. After wins over

Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

, St. John's, SMU and Wake Forest, Virginia lost in the final to Georgetown finishing runner up for the second time in school history. Bell ended the season playing 21 games of which he started all 21 of them, only missing two games during the ACC tournament while on International duty. He scored seven goals, of which four came during the NCAA tournament, as well as had four assists. Bell also won a number of awards both on the field and academic, including

United Soccer Coaches The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)) is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. It is the largest soccer coaches organization in the world, with more than ...

Scholar Player of the Year, First Team Scholar All-American, ACC First Team and ACC Midfielder of the Year He was also one of three finalists for the MAC Hermann Trophy for best player in the country.

Viking

On 10 January 2020, Bell signed a three-year contract with

in the Norwegian

Brøndby IF

On transfer-deadline day, 31 January 2022, Bell signed a 4½-year contract with reigning

champions

International career

U17

Bell was selected for the New Zealand U17 national team that played in the

2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the sixteenth tournament of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, held in Chile from 17 October to 8 November 2015. Host selection The following four countries bid to host the tournament: * * * * Venues Along with proposing ...

in Chile. He played in two of the group games, a 0–0 draw with

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and a 2–1 win over

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

. As well as there loss to Brazil in the Round of 16 with a stoppage-time penalty seeing them eliminated from the competition.

U20

Bell has played for and captained the New Zealand U20 national team. Playing in the

2018 OFC U-19 Championship The 2018 OFC U-19 Championship was the 22nd edition of the OFC U-19/U-20 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) for the men's under-19/under-20 national teams of ...

where he was the tournament MVP and they qualified for the

2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 22nd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 ...

in Poland. He has also played and captained the team at the

2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 21st edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 as ...

in South Korea.

Senior

Bell made his team debut for the New Zealand senior national team in a friendly against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, starting in a 3–1 loss.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list New Zealand's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bell goal.''

Honours

New Zealand U19 *

OFC U-19 Championship The OFC U-19 Championship is a tournament held once every two years to decide the under-19 champions of Oceania and also decides who will represent Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) at the biennial FIFA U-20 World Cup. Between 1974 and 2012, ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Golden Ball Individual * All-ACC Team Awards – Freshman Team

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, Third Team

, First Team

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

and ACC Midfielder of the Year:

TopDrawerSoccer.com National Player of the Year Award TopDrawerSoccer.com (TDS) is an American association football, soccer website that is dedicated to youth soccer in the United States. Specifically, the website focuses on Academy soccer, high school soccer, and college soccer in the United States ...

: 2019 *

Soccer America Player of the Year Award Beginning in 1984, Soccer America Magazine began naming a college player of the year. At the time ''Soccer America'' was the best source for U.S. soccer, especially collegiate soccer which was rarely covered by the national news services. Consequ ...

: 2019

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Joe 1999 births Living people All-American men's college soccer players Footballers from Bristol People from Wānaka New Zealand association footballers New Zealand international footballers New Zealand under-20 international footballers New Zealand youth international footballers English footballers English emigrants to New Zealand Association football midfielders Wellington Phoenix FC players Virginia Cavaliers men's soccer players Viking FK players Brøndby IF players Eliteserien players Danish Superliga players People educated at Scots College, Wellington New Zealand expatriate association footballers New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate footballers in Norway New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic association footballers of New Zealand National Premier Soccer League players