Nicky Salapu

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Nicky Salapu
Personal information
Full name Nicky Vitolio Salapu
Date of birth (1980-09-13) September 13, 1980 (age 44) [1]
Place of birth Pago Pago, American Samoa
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
2000–2011 PanSa East
2011–2013 Mitra Kukar
2013– PanSa East
International career
2001– American Samoa 24 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Nicky Vitolio Salapu (born September 13, 1980) is an American Samoan footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for ASFA Soccer League club PanSa East, which he captains, and the American Samoa national football team. He previously played for PanSa East from 2000 to 2011, before leaving for Indonesian side Mitra Kukar in 2012. He played in American Samoa's 31–0 loss to Australia, where he was the only player from the senior squad remaining after the rest of the squad was ruled ineligible due to holding Samoan, rather than US, passports. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Salapu conceded a total of 91 goals in the 2002 and 2006 World Cup qualifiers, [5] while also starting in American Samoa's first ever official FIFA World Cup qualifiers win. After the game, Salapu said: "I feel like a champ right now. Finally I'm going to put the past behind me." [6]

His stint with the American Samoa national team was covered in the 2014 documentary Next Goal Wins , and the 2023 biographical comedy-drama also called Next Goal Wins .

Club career

Salapu played for PanSa East for eleven years, beginning in 2000 and terminating in 2011. Despite rumors circulating online about Salapu joining Austrian club SC Mauerbach in 2008, Salapu contradicted those claims in an interview with Marca in 2011. [7] In 2011, he went to play for Mitra Kukar, a club playing in the Indonesia Super League (ISL), which is a fully professional football competition as the top tier of the football league pyramid in Indonesia. Salapu returned to PanSa East in 2013.

International career

Salapu conceded 31 goals to Australia in a 2002 World Cup qualifying match on April 11, 2001, which became a world record that still stands to this day. [8] [9] Salapu later said that he hid tears from his teammates. [10]

In 2007, Salapu missed his flight from Hawaii to the South Pacific Games in Samoa. Because he could not make it on time, he was replaced by the 17-year-old Jordan Penitusi. He was not eligible to play until he arrived for the last match of American Samoa in the South Pacific Games with Tonga, but there he was an unused substitute. [11] In November 2011, Salapu was the goalkeeper when American Samoa won its first ever full FIFA match, a 2–1 win over Tonga during the first round of the OFC qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. [6] In 2015, he was called up as substitute goalkeeper for the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers.

He represented American Samoa at the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia. [12] [13] Salapu has been selected for the American Samoan team at the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara. [14]

Personal life

His son Dylan is also a footballer. [10]

Career statistics

International

American Samoa [15]
YearAppsGoals
200140
200210
200440
201180
201950
202420
Total240

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Nicky Salapu". FBRef. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Australia 31-0 American Samoa: The loneliest game in history". FourFourTwo. April 9, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  3. ↑ "31-0: The scoreline that made American Samoa famous". Football Bloody Hell. March 2, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Nicky Salapu, la redención del portero humillado" (in Spanish). Libertad Digital. April 11, 2021. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Nicky Salapu, el portero que más motivos tuvo para odiar su trabajo (pero que no lo hizo) #Díainternacionaldelportero". Toni Cruz. April 14, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  6. 1 2 Montague, James (November 23, 2011). "American Samoa, Winless and at Bottom of Rankings, Wins a World Cup Qualifier". The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Salapu: "Aquello es algo de lo que no me gusta hablar" - MARCA.com". Marca. Retrieved January 11, 2025.
  8. ↑ "31-0 – The plight of American Samoa – Back Page Football". Back Page Football. March 13, 2015. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  9. ↑ Cockerill, Michael (November 25, 2011). "Finally making history for all the right reasons". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  10. 1 2 "The keeper who conceded 31 goals in a game" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  11. ↑ Mark Gleeson (August 29, 2007). "Coach of world's worst team must grin and bear it". Reuters. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  12. ↑ "INTERVIEW: American Samoa's Nicky Salapu and Jaiyah Saelua on their love of the game". Football in Oceania. July 10, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  13. ↑ "American Samoa men's National Team ready to play". Samoa News. July 7, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  14. ↑ "More than 20 years after his Australian nightmare, keeper's enthusiasm for representing American Samoa shows no signs of wavering". ABC. December 9, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
  15. ↑ Nicky Salapu at National-Football-Teams.com
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