The 17-year-old left for the United Kingdom today and can’t wait to touch down and begin testing his skills in a professional environment.
“These kind of chances only come around once and I will do everything I possibly can to enter one of these teams for the good of football in Vanuatu,” Iaruel says.
“I am representing not just my club and my family but my country as well and I will try to open the door for Vanuatu to European football.”
The teenage custodian earned the chance to try his luck in England after impressing Australia-based Stoke City agent Andrew Parkes on a trip to Brisbane in March with the Vanuatu U-23 team, who were preparing for the OFC Men’s Olympic Qualifier at the time.
“I wish Seiloni all the best for his trials,” Parkes says.
“It will be up to Seiloni’s performance and attitude both on and off the park so I hope he has been putting in lots of hard work in his preparation to make sure he is ready. I am personally very excited for him and I hope he makes us all proud.”
If the Tafea player does manage to put pen to paper with either club, he is likely to find a degree of fame and fortune unheard of for any other Ni-Vanuatu footballer.
He would become the third player to enter the professional ranks since the Pacific’s finest players were on show at the OFC Nations Cup in June, following in the footsteps of Solomon Islands’ Benjamin Totori and New Caledonia’s Georges Gope-Fenepej, who signed with Wellington Phoenix and French Ligue 1 side ESTAC Troyes respectively.
Iaruel is aware the odds are stacked against him but, given his rapid rise through the ranks to the top of Oceania football, few would bet against him pulling off the seemingly impossible.
He first played for Vanuatu in the national U-15 team at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore two years ago and has gone on to progress through the ranks, representing his country at U-17, U-20 and U-23 level before being called up to the senior squad.
Capping that remarkable rise off with a professional contract would be a memorable moment indeed.
“It would be like winning the lottery,” Iaruel says.
The exciting prospect is a product of the country’s national academy in Teouma and Vanuatu Football Federation (VFF) technical director Charles Vatu hopes he will be the first of many to head overseas.
“If Seiloni can be given this opportunity, it means that there are others in the country who could follow soon,” Vatu says.
“All it needs is effective development programmes from clubs to national level.”
For more on Vanuatu football go to www.vanuafoot.vu

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