Simione Tamanisau (born 5 June 1982) is a Fijian international

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 ...

, who plays as a

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and striker for Suva in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Club career

Tamanisau has spent his entire domestic career so far in his native Fiji. During the 2010–11 season, Tamanisau had a loan spell in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

with

Hekari United Hekari United, formerly known as POM Souths, Souths United, PRK Souths United and Hekari Souths United, is a professional football club formed in 2006, based in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The club holds the record for most titles in the Pa ...

. He is mostly used as a goalkeeper but able to play as a striker when needed. On 19 October 2016, he scored the winning goal for Rewa in their 2–1 victory against Suva in the National Football League match.

International career

Tamanisau earned his first call-up to the

Fiji national football team The Fiji national football team is Fiji's national men's team and is controlled by the governing body of football in Fiji, the Fiji Football Association. The team plays most of their home games at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva. Fiji ...

in 2003, during his inaugural season. He won five

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that year. The following year, he played in his first

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

qualifying match when he kept goal in the 4–2 victory over

on 12 May 2004. He played another five matches in the qualification campaign for the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

, conceding 11 goals in total. He made a further two appearances for the team in 2005, and the team did not play during 2006. During qualification for the

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

in South Africa, Tamanisau became embroiled in controversy when he was denied entry to New Zealand to play a Second Qualifying Round tie. He was stopped at customs because his father-in-law, a military police officer, had been involved in the

2006 Fijian coup d'état The Fijian coup d'état of December 2006 was a coup d'état carried out by Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, against the government of President Josefa Iloilo. Iloilo was removed as president, bu ...

. The match was eventually postponed with Fiji refusing to play without their first-choice goalkeeper. On 19 November 2008, the game was played with Fiji emerging 2–0 winners. Following this match, Tamanisau spent over two years out of the Fiji team before returning to make seven more appearances for his country during 2011. On 16 July 2016, Tamanisau was selected by the Fiji under-23 team for the 2016 Summer Olympics as one of three overage players. In 2019, he was selected for the 2019 Pacific Games. Fiji won a bronze medal.

International career statistics

References

External links

* *
Record at FIFA Tournaments
nbsp;– FIFA 1982 births Living people Fijian footballers Fiji men's international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Navua F.C. players Rewa F.C. players People from Tailevu Province Lautoka F.C. players Hekari United F.C. players 2004 OFC Nations Cup players 2008 OFC Nations Cup players 2012 OFC Nations Cup players 2016 OFC Nations Cup players Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Fiji {{Fiji-footy-bio-stub