Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Kilifi Uele | ||
Date of birth | 14 November 1974 | ||
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, correct 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]
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]
# | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | 12 March 2002 | National Soccer Stadium, Apia, Samoa | ![]() | 4–1 | 7–2 | 2002 OFC Nations Cup qualification |
2. | 5 July 2003 | Vodafone Ratu Cakobau Park, Nausori, Fiji | ![]() | 7–0 | 7–0 | 2003 South Pacific Games |
2. | 9 December 2017 | Port Vila Municipal Stadium, Port Vila, Vanuatu | ![]() | 2–3 | 2–4 | 2017 Pacific Mini Games |
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]