Adam Thomas didn’t play a competitive football match for almost six years from 2012 to 2018.
But his next one, his first for Shelbourne FC in the League of Ireland Premier Division, will be a special occasion.
A series of knee, hip, and ankle injuries – and the resulting surgeries – waylaid the defender after he started all of New Zealand’s matches at the London Olympics a decade ago as a 20-year-old.
He had been tipped for big things as a youngster, coming out of the Waikato at the same time as schoolmate Chris Wood, who has since gone on to star in England and for the All Whites.
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But from November 2012, when he played for Waikato FC against Hawke’s Bay United, until August 2018, when he made his comeback with Wellington club Western Suburbs in the Chatham Cup, Thomas was one of the forgotten men of New Zealand football.
During that time never lost sight of the goal of playing professionally in Europe. And thanks to a former English Premier League star and Irish international, that dream is about to come true.
"Holy s…, Damien Duff," was Thomas’ first reaction, when he spotted the Republic of Ireland centurion watching at a training camp in Dublin put on by the national football association for out-of-contract players at the end of last year.
As Thomas remembers it, the locals didn’t take much notice of Duff’s presence on the sideline, but he was impressed by the presence of the player who won the Premier League with Chelsea under Jose Mourinho and also enjoyed long stints at Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, and Newcastle United.
"I got a message on WhatsApp maybe three or four days later," Thomas said this week, after his signing was announced.
“Hey Adam, Damien Duff here. Do you mind if I give you a call later today?’
“I was with my wife, and I was like, this has got to be a joke or something. I was in a little bit of disbelief.”
On that call, Duff explained that he had taken charge at Shelbourne, a newly-promoted club with a proud history, including 13 League of Ireland titles, but none since 2006, when crippling debt resulted in relegation
"The way he explained it, he was very ambitious to get it back to where it was, and build something really special at Shels," Thomas said.
There was an offer for Thomas to come down and train prior to Christmas, "so I started going down to some of the sessions that he was running and just loved it".
“The environment he created was exactly what I was looking for. It was really professionally run, the type of football he was implementing was what I enjoy. A lot of small-sided games, rondos, a possession-based style, very attacking.
“That went through mid-December to Christmas, and then it came to an end then and I wasn’t too sure what was going on, if he was just helping me out with some sessions to stay fit or if was I trialling. He doesn’t really give away too much.
It was after an internal match between Christmas and New Year’s Eve that Duff took Thomas aside and said: “Look, I think you’ve done well. I really admire your attitude and the desire you’ve showed to come out and try and play football in Europe, especially in your situation. I’d like to offer you 12 months here.”
The 29-year-old didn’t hesitate to say yes, but the process of ticking all the boxes play in Ireland as a New Zealander meant it was only this week, ahead of Shelbourne’s season opener on Friday night, that his signing was officially announced.
In 2018, as he was making his comeback, Thomas said his short term goal was: “Getting back to just enjoying playing football and not having the worries about getting injured or breaking down”.
From 2019 to 2021, he did just that, with Auckland club Eastern Suburbs. He’d arrived there at the end of 2018, alongside a host of his Western Suburbs team-mates, who had come through the Olé Football Academy under Declan Edge, one of Thomas’ first mentors as he grew up in Hamilton.
But while the likes of Elijah Just, Callum McCowatt, and Nando Pijnaker all moved on after one season, where they won the old national league, chasing their own European football dreams and beginning professional careers and becoming All Whites regulars, Thomas stayed put.
He was at a different stage of his career to his mostly teenage team-mates and over the next two years at Eastern Suburbs, he found the regular football he had been craving, playing regularly throughout the 2019-20 and 2020-21 national league seasons, as well as in the northern league in the winter.
“There was a lot of work that I was doing with certain people and specialists to try and do the best that I could and then learn along the process, so then I wouldn’t really need to keep seeing those people, so if I was to leave, I could keep doing that work,” Thomas said.
“It’s still a work in progress. I still get little bits here and there, but it’s nowhere near the level that it was, which I’m really happy with because it was a lot of time lost, but I think I’ve learned a lot to try and hopefully extend the back end, I guess you could say, of the playing time I’ve got left.”
In 2018, Thomas said his long-term goal was to end up at professional club, which is still easier said than done if you’re a New Zealander, even at a time when the country has more pro footballers than it ever has before.
Ireland first came on his radar as a potential destination a year ago, but he ended up staying in New Zealand until last May, when he married partner Laura.
Stints in Australia – where he played for Oakleigh Cannons – and Sweden – where he trained with Edge and a number of former Western Suburbs team-mates – followed in 2021, then came his time in Dublin, where he caught Duff’s eye.
The League of Ireland is far from the bright lights of Europe’s biggest competitions, but Thomas will have Kiwi company there, in the form of former team-mate Pijnaker and Max Mata, who have both signed for Sligo Rovers.
Thomas readily acknowledges that his story is “a little bit different to others”. There was a time when playing week-in, week-out at any level appeared to be beyond him. But while his pathway has been unusual, taking him to Europe for the first time in the year where he’ll turn 30, he’s glad to have persevered and got to where he is today.
“For it to be heading in the direction I’ve been wanting to go for a long time, it’s a good feeling”.
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