Ryan Nelsen appointed as New Zealand Football beef up high performance team

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Ryan Nelsen (C), pictured for the All Whites against Italy at the 2010 World Cup finals, has a new role with NZ Football.

Former All Whites World Cup captain Ryan Nelsen has been appointed to New Zealand Football’s high performance and player welfare committee.

Nelsen – widely regarded as one of New Zealand’s greatest footballers – joins ex-Football Ferns international Kirsty Yallop on the committee which will be overseen by New Zealand Football’s new high performance head Keir Hansen, who has been lured from Netball New Zealand.

The appointments were confirmed by NZF on Monday, with most interest focusing on Nelsen’s recruitment.

This will be the first formal NZF role for Nelsen, since the former Premier League star won the last of his 49 caps in 2012.

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Nelsen – a former Blackburn Rovers, Tottenham Hotspur and Queen’s Park Rangers defender – has retained a strong interest in the All Whites and was supportive of his former teammate Danny Hay’s coaching tenure, which ended after a 1-0 defeat in a one-off qualifying playoff against Costa Rica in Doha, Qatar, in mid-June.

His appointment was confirmed by NZF chief executive Andrew Pragnell, who has shaken up the high performance division after a review by New Zealand sports governance specialist Don Mackinnon criticised the lack of a proper campaign plan for the 2022 World Cup cycle.

Hansen has with Netball New Zealand for the last six years and oversaw the high performance programme that saw the Silver Ferns win the Netball World Cup in 2019.

He was previously national strength and conditioning manager with High Performance Sport NZ and also had five-year stints as conditioning chief at the New Zealand Warriors NRL club and the Worcester Warriors English rugby premiership side.

Peter Meecham/Stuff

Ryan Nelsen pictured with son Maxwell at Christchurch United’s youth academy in 2022.

As impressive as Hansen’s credentials are it is the appointment of Washington DC-based Nelsen and Yallop that will be seen as giving NZF more high performance heft.

“As an organisation, we have been very keen to take advantage of the wealth of experience our former national team players have so we are really pleased to appoint Kirsty and Ryan to our high performance and player welfare committee,’’ Pragnell said.

“The committee plays a crucial role in guiding what we do in the high performance space and Kirsty and Ryan’s knowledge and lived experience here will be invaluable.”

Their appointments are in line with one of Mackinnon’s recommendations from the review, calling for ways to introduce greater professional football expertise within NZF, including potentially adding high-profile former All Whites to the high performance and player welfare committee.

Nelsen captained the All Whites at the Fifa World Cup 2010 and played at two Olympic Games.

Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Kirsty Yallop (L), pictured playing for the Football Ferns in 2016, will join New Zealand Football’s high performance committee.

He made over 250 appearances in the English Premier League and MLS over a 13-year professional playing career and was also head coach at MLS club Toronto FC for 18 months

Yallop made 104 appearances for the Football Ferns, playing in two Fifa Women’s World Cups and three Olympic Games. She played professionally for over a decade across Australia, Norway, Sweden and the USA and has also worked for Fifa as a consultant.

The Mackinnon review noted that “the level of separation that existed’’ between Hay’s All Whites management team and NZF’s high performance staff had been “significant and falls well short of practice’’.

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The All Whites will need to find a new coach despite the players wanting Hay to stay in charge.

Pragnell said Hansen would bring “a wealth of experience from other leading New Zealand sporting organisations’’ to his new NZF role.

“He understands the landscape of operating high performance sides in Aotearoa and the importance of alignment across the organisation and national teams.

“We have an ambitious programme lined up for our national teams and we believe Keir is perfectly placed to bring it to fruition.”