Neil Emblen (born 19 June 1971) is an English former 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 is the assistant coach of

Colorado Rapids The Colorado Rapids are an American professional soccer club based in the Denver metropolitan area. The Rapids compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 1995, as part of the Anschutz Corporation, la ...

and

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 served as assistant head coach of New Zealand under

Ricki Herbert Ricki Lloyd Herbert (born 10 April 1961) is a New Zealand former footballer and manager. He is the current technical director at Cambridge FC. Herbert was formerly head coach of the New Zealand national team, stepping down after the side faile ...

and of Anthony Hudson, and was briefly the interim head coach prior to Hudson's appointment. He was the head coach of the New Zealand U23's during the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. He spent the majority of his career in English football with

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building * ...

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

and

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

, before moving to New Zealand.

Club career

Emblen started his career as a youth player at Tonbridge Angels before moving to

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...

and then

for a fee of £210,000 including Michael Harle. After spending a year with the Lions, Emblen was sold to

for £600,000, where he would become a regular during his three years at Molineux. A £2,000,000 move to

beckoned in 1997 but would last just one season, and in 1998, after scoring two goals for Palace in the FA Cup against Scunthorpe United, Emblen moved back to Wolves in exchange for the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

club writing off the remainder of the £2million still owed as part of the initial transfer. Emblen's second three-year spell saw him gain favour with the Wolves fans as he made the attacking midfield role his own. It ended in 2001 when he moved to

for £500,000. Emblen started just six games in a two-year spell with the Canaries because of chronic knee injury problems and spent the last few months of his contract on loan to

(in two separate spells), whom he joined permanently on a two-year deal in June 2003. Upon leaving Walsall in 2005, Emblen moved to New Zealand to join the now-defunct

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 ...

. After the Knights ceased playing, Emblen moved to

Waitakere United Waitakere United was a football club based in Waitakere City, New Zealand. They were one of the franchises in the ISPS Handa Premiership. They played their home games at Fred Taylor Park in Kumeu and The Trusts Arena. History Waitakere United ...

Coaching career

Emblen was appointed player-coach of

from 2009 to 2012, winning three successive

ASB Premiership 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 ...

titles during his time at the club. In 2013, he was appointed in the same role at Western Springs, taking them from the

Lotto Sport Italia NRFL Division 2 The Northern Regional Football League Division 2, currently known as Lotto Sport Italia NRFL Division 2 for sponsorship reasons, is a New Zealand amateur football league. The league is run by the Auckland Football Federation and includes foot ...

to the

Lotto Sport Italia NRFL Premier The Northern League is a semi-professional New Zealand association football competition. It is a top-tier competition during the winter season, and sits at step two overall. The Northern League includes football clubs located in the northern p ...

within two years. In 2012, he managed the New Zealand U23 team at the London Olympics. In 2014, he was named as the

interim head coach, taking charge of two matches; a 4–2 loss to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and a goalless draw with

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. In February 2018 he was appointed by Anthony Hudson as assistant coach of

where is still one of the assistant coaches.

Personal life

His brother,

Paul Emblen Paul David Emblen (born 3 April 1976) is an English former professional footballer who played for Tonbridge Angels, Charlton Athletic, Brighton & Hove Albion and Wycombe Wanderers. His brother Neil Neil is a masculine name of Gaelic and Irish ...

, was also a professional footballer, playing for

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

and

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

References

External links

Neil Emblen Interview
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emblen, Neil 1971 births Living people English footballers Footballers from Bromley Association football midfielders Association football forwards Premier League players English Football League players A-League Men players Tonbridge Angels F.C. players Sittingbourne F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Walsall F.C. players New Zealand Knights FC players Waitakere United players English football managers Waitakere United managers Colorado Rapids non-playing staff English expatriate footballers English expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Expatriate association footballers in New Zealand English expatriate sportspeople in the United States