Kilifi Uele

Kilifi Uele

Personal information
Full name	Kilifi Uele
Date of birth	(1974-11-14) 14 November 1974 (age 50)
Place of birth	Tonga
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Tonga (head coach)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1997–2020	Veitongo
International career‡
1996–2017	Tonga	26	(3)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals ‡ National team caps and goals as of 14 December 2017

Kilifi Uele (born 14 November 1974) ^[1] is a Tongan former footballer and manager who is the current Tonga national football team head coach.

According to the RSSSF, Uele is the second-oldest goalscorer in the history of international football. ^[2]

International career

Uele made his debut internationally in 1994, with his team winning second place at the 1994 Polynesia Cup. By the turn of the century, he was already Tonga's captain, leading his side against an all-star Australia side in 2001, which ended in a resounding 22–0 defeat, which was forgotten just a few days later thanks to American Samoa's 31–0 loss to the same opponent. ^[3] Uele went on to score three international goals, including one against New Caledonia on 9 December 2017, becoming, at the age of 43 years and 25 days, the second-oldest international goalscorer in world football, only behind Keithroy Cornelius, who had scored for Virgin Islands in 2011, at the age of 43 years and 196 days. ^[2] This goal also makes him the oldest international goalscorer in the OFC. ^[4]

In January 2020, the 45-year-old played for Veitongo FC at the qualifying stage of the 2020 OFC Champions League, becoming one of the few footballers to have played in four different decades (from the 1990s until the 2020s). ^[3] Uele also plays beach soccer internationally, and was part of the Tongan team making its debut at the 2019 OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup. ^[5]

International goals

Scores and results list Tonga's goal tally first. ^[6]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	12 March 2002	National Soccer Stadium, Apia, Samoa	American Samoa	4–1	7–2	2002 OFC Nations Cup qualification
2.	5 July 2003	Vodafone Ratu Cakobau Park, Nausori, Fiji	Micronesia	7–0	7–0	2003 South Pacific Games
2.	9 December 2017	Port Vila Municipal Stadium, Port Vila, Vanuatu	New Caledonia	2–3	2–4	2017 Pacific Mini Games

Managerial career

Uele is the Technical Director of the Tonga Football Association, a post he has held since 2005. Uele coached his country's women's team to win a silver medal at the 2007 OFC Women's Championship. Uele was also the head coach of his country's U-19 women's team when they took runner-up in the OFC U-19 Women's Championship in 2006, losing 6–0 to New Zealand in the finals. Before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Uele helped run a new project to promote women's football in the more remote islands of Tonga. Later in 2020, Uele said his main focus was on the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. ^{[3] [5] [7] [8]}

References

1. "Kilifi UELE". FIFA. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
2. "Oldest and Youngest Players and Goal-scorers in International Football". RSSSF. 27 August 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
3. "Kilifi Uele, the grand maestro of Pacific football". FIFA. Archived from the original on 2022-06-14. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
4. "Oldest national team scorers". www.iffhs.com. 28 December 2024. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
5. "Tonga's football maestro". Archived from the original on 2024-02-22. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
6. "Uele, Kilifi". National Football Teams. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
7. "Football comes to Vava'u". 3 March 2015. Archived from the original on 12 April 2016.
8. "Hybrid FIFA course furthers Futsal, Beach Soccer in Tonga". FIFA. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2016.