Xavier Samin (born 1 January 1978) is a Tahitian

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 goalkeeper. He currently plays for

AS Tefana Association Sportive Tefana Football, is a football club from Faaa, Tahiti, French Polynesia. The club plays their home matches at Stade Louis Ganivet. The club became the second French Polynesian team to have reached the final of the OFC Champio ...

in the

Tahiti Division Fédérale The Tahitian Ligue 1 is the top division of the Fédération Tahitienne de Football in French Polynesia. The league is currently named Ligue 1 Vini for sponsorship reasons. Competition format Competition is divided into a regular season and play ...

, and the Tahiti national football team.

Biography

Samin started playing football at the age of eight at

. Ten years later he was promoted to Tefana's main adult team, on which he remains to date. In 17 seasons with Tefana, Samin won the

Tahiti First Division The Tahitian Ligue 1 is the top division of the Fédération Tahitienne de Football in French Polynesia. The league is currently named Ligue 1 Vini for sponsorship reasons. Competition format Competition is divided into a regular season and play- ...

three times, as well as five

Tahiti Cup The Tahiti Cup (also known as Coupe de Polynésie or Coupe de Tahiti Nui) is the premier football knockout tournament in French Polynesia. It was created in 1938, and gives the winner of the tournament a berth in the Coupe de France. Between the ...

s and the 2007

Tahiti Coupe des Champions The Coupe des Champions (Tahiti Super Cup) is a match between the winner of the Tahiti Ligue 1 and the winner of the Tahiti Cup The Tahiti Cup (also known as Coupe de Polynésie or Coupe de Tahiti Nui) is the premier football knockout tournament ...

. Outside of the field, Samin works as a football teacher, and an

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

. The first caps for Samin in the Tahitian squad were in 2000. He has since taken part in four

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

tournaments, and was a major part of the Tahitian title of the

2012 OFC Nations Cup 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

. Starting the competition as a backup goalkeeper to Mickaël Roche, Samin was promoted to a starting position in the third match, a 4–1 win against Vanuatu. He was also the starting goalkeeper for the next two matches, keeping a clean sheet in the semifinal match against Solomon Islands and in the final against

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

, both won by 1–0. His long experience with the "To'a Aitos" made defensive midfielder

Lorenzo Tehau Lorenzo Tehau is a footballer from Tahiti currently playing for A.S. Central Sport. He is the twin brother of Alvin Tehau, brother of Jonathan Tehau and cousin of Teaonui Tehau, all of them playing for Tahiti national football team. He represente ...

declare that "I’ve played with Samin since I was a kid. He’s like my dad." The OFC Nations Cup qualified Tahiti for its first international competition, the

2013 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the ninth FIFA Confederations Cup, which was held in Brazil from 15 to 30 June 2013 as a prelude to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The most recent winners of the six continental championships appeared in the tourna ...

in Brazil. There Samin played in the team's first game, a 6–1 defeat to Nigeria in

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

. He also wrote a fight song for the Tahitian squad, "Song of the To’a Aitos".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samin, Xavier 1978 births Living people French Polynesian footballers Tahiti international footballers 2004 OFC Nations Cup players 2002 OFC Nations Cup players 2012 OFC Nations Cup players 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup players Association football goalkeepers