Nando Pijnaker was born in the Netherlands and moved to Rotorua with his family when he was three. He played football for Ngongotaha  AFC and Western Heights High School.

In 2015, he moved to Wellington to become part of the Olé Football Academy, then under the leadership of Declan Edge, a former All White and national age group coach.

Nando represented Western Suburbs in the Central League, winning the competition in 2017 and reaching the Chatham Cup final in 2018.

He followed Edge and his football dreams to Europe, playing in Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark and Ireland, before returning to New Zealand to join new A-League club Auckland FC last year.

The centre back has been capped four times at U-20 level for New Zealand, and has played 23 games for the All Whites.

Tell us a little bit about how you got started playing football in Rotorua.

I started playing at school. I lived in Hamurana and went to a country school, Kaharoa, so that was my first football team. And then I quickly went to Ngongotaha, because all my friends played there so I wanted to join them.

Ngongotaha was about 10-15 minutes away from my house. I loved it there. I started when I was maybe six or seven.

I think I played for the first team the very first time when I was 14 or 15. We had a really good Chatham Cup run that year. We won against a few teams who played in leagues above us. We played in what was called at the time Federation 2, which was about the 5^th tier.

I really enjoyed it. My teammates were really helpful and supported me. I was the youngest player on the team and I have really good memories of those times. 

Do any particular coaches or mentors from that time that stand out? 

Yeah, definitely. Shane Davis. He was the coach of the first team at Ngongotaha and also Western Heights, which is where I went to high school.

He taught me a lot of things. I was really young, I was 13-14 when he started coaching me and I improved a lot under him.

He chose to bring me up into the first team when I was probably almost too young to be in, but he trusted me and he saw something. I have a lot to thank him for.

[Shane Davis was a Life Member at Ngongotaha Football Club. He died on January 11, 2022, aged 59]

Shane Davis. Photo: Ngongotaha AFC

And how did the introduction with Declan Edge and Olé happen?

I was part of a Waikato / Bay of Plenty team that played in a youth tournament [National age group tournament] in Wellington.

That's when we connected with Declan and the Olé Football Academy. I think my mum read something in the newspaper and we got in touch with Declan, and he invited me for a trial at the Olé Academy. I think I was 15. 

It was during the school holidays, right before I started Year 12. So I went down for maybe 5 days, not really knowing what to expect and they said yes. I didn't know anyone at the Academy, so everything was new.

I was kind of nervous and scared to move, because my parents weren't going to move with me, so I was going to be alone. So that's quite a big change when you're 15 years old.

And then I came home to Rotorua. I went to the very first day of school of Year 12 at Western Heights to say goodbye to everyone. And then I think that weekend I moved down to Wellington full time. So a lot happened very quickly. 

Auckland FC's Nando Pijnaker scores and celebrates his goal. Auckland FC v Wellington Phoenix, 7 December 2024. Photo: Shane Wenzlick / www.phototek.nz

You boarded at Olé and finished school down there?

Yes, I lived at Olé and went Tawa College down the road for Year 12 and 13.

At the time the pathway for a lot of the players was to go to college in America. So that was kind of what the plan was for me.

I didn't really know if it was possible to go to Europe. At the time Ryan Thomas was one of the only ones, there were maybe three players that had moved to Europe.

Then while I was at Olé a lot of players created pathways for us, to see what was possible in Europe and overseas at professional football clubs.

You started in Sweden, then you’ve been to Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark and then Ireland. Are you going into environments where your training is in English because players are from all over the world, or are you having to pick up languages as you go?

It depends. I think Sweden and Denmark, especially, their English is almost as good as their Swedish or Danish. So you almost didn't need to learn the language. In Portugal and Switzerland it was a little bit tougher, especially Portugal. I think there were maybe two of us players that spoke English and the rest were speaking in Portuguese. That was difficult.  You kind of needed to have a translator with you.

I was taking classes of Portuguese but I struggled because it was the year of COVID. It was very difficult outside of football as well because we were locked in our houses, and we didn't have too much freedom. I found that quite challenging.

In Switzerland I had a teammate from New Zealand, Max Mata. So we had the same problem with the language, but we had it together. We could help each other out with that. I was trying to learn a bit of Swiss German because I speak Dutch. There are some similarities. I can pick up a few words. Not to say that I could speak, but it was easier than the Portuguese!

Image: Sligo Rovers

You played again with Max Mata at Sligo Rovers in Ireland, which was the longest time you stayed at one club in Europe. Sligo is not somewhere you associate with a ‘glamorous football life’ in Europe.

No, not at all. It's in the middle of nowhere and it has terrible weather all year round.

The people there are amazing, and made it super comfortable for me and for Max. It was a really good place for me, because I had moved around so much, to stay in one place and play a lot of games. It was a really good time for that. 

Were you earning enough money in a professional football career to live or were you having to pick up other jobs? [Teammate Francis de Vries has just done a video where he talks about the odd jobs he’s done all over Europe]

I was very lucky. The first club I went to in Sweden where I was for less than six months I was not making any money playing. I didn't work, I was just, I guess, surviving. 

I was given supermarket vouchers, for food and other things you needed to survive. So I wasn't making any money, but I was young and was just trying to enjoy playing football and seeing where I could go with it.

But luckily after that in Switzerland I signed a professional contract, and then every club since then has been a professional contract. I feel very lucky that I had those opportunities. 

And then you got the chance to come home to Auckland. How did that come about and was that a difficult decision?

It was difficult. I'd spent two seasons in Ireland and I wanted to try and get other opportunities at other clubs in Europe, but I was finding it a little bit difficult.

And Auckland were forming a new team and they approached me. But I didn't really know what to think, because there was nothing to it at the time. It was just like ‘okay we’re forming a club here, if you want to come.’

I didn't know anything, like who the coach was. It was a bit later when they named the coaches. Obviously I've worked with Danny Hay before in the past, so I knew what to expect with him, and they also spoke to me and laid out the plans. That’s when it kind of got a little bit more interesting to me.

My partner is Spanish, so she was kind of hoping to stay in Europe and be close to her family. So to come to almost the furthest country away from Spain was obviously difficult for her and we had to have some tough conversations, but it became a really good opportunity and one that we didn't want to say no to.

Nando Pijnaker. FIFA World Cup 2026 - OFC Qualifiers, Samoa v New Zealand,  18 November 2024. Photo: Shane Wenzlick / www.phototek.nz

None of us knew what Auckland FC was going to end up being. I think it's massively exceeded a lot of people's expectations.

I don't think any of the players knew what to expect either. But I knew that they were doing things properly. They had all the right things in place, like the training is really good. We have food after training, all the strength and conditioning is done really well.

We have our own gym, so it's done really professionally.

How’s the experience coming home been?

It's amazing being back in front of friends and family that I haven't seen for a long time or if I did see them, it would be for one or two days and then I'd be going back to Europe again. And obviously the New Zealand lifestyle is really nice.

My mum still lives in Rotorua and my sister has been living in Auckland the last eight or nine years, but she's actually moving to Europe next week, so we’re kind of swapping places. 

And where to from here? Obviously, getting to the World Cup will a big goal for you, I imagine.

Yeah, definitely. Obviously qualifying for the World Cup would be amazing. And then going to the World Cup would be even better.

I signed three years here with Auckland, and that's going well. For now, I’m fully focused on the season we're having.

I would love to go back to Europe one day, but for now the focus is here, I'll just keep playing, keep doing well for the club and then see what comes up. 

What would you say to young kids in the Waikato and the Bay of Plenty that want to follow in your footsteps and become a professional footballer?

Always enjoy what you're doing, so enjoy playing football. Or whatever sport or whatever you're interested in, you have to enjoy what you do every single day.

I got to a point I had to move to the city to get to the next level.

I love football. All I wanted to do was play football. So wherever the best opportunity was for football, I really wanted to go. Obviously it was difficult. I was quite young. I was 15 when I decided to move, but I knew that's what I wanted to do.

Nando Pijnaker. Auckland FC v Western United FC,  21 December 2024. Photo: Shane Wenzlick / www.phototek.nz

Nando has been named in the 23 man All Whites squad who will face Fiji in the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup 2026 – Oceania Qualifiers on 21 March 2025 at Sky Stadium in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

The winner qualifies for the final on 24 March 2025 at Eden Park in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

The winning team in the FIFA World Cup 2026 – Oceania Qualifiers final will automatically qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in history after the tournament was expanded giving an OFC side direct entry.

Get a 26% discount using the Discount Code: WAIBOPCLUB26

SEMI FINALS - Friday 21st March, Sky Stadium, Wellington

• Semi Final 1 - 3pm - New Caledonia v Tahiti
• Semi Final 2 - 7pm - New Zealand All Whites v Fiji

FINAL - Monday 24th March, Eden Park, Auckland

• 7pm

Dedicated Club Zone

This discount gives access to tickets in the Club Zone for both matchdays.

Ticket link here https://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows/show.aspx?sh=OFCQUAL25

Offer is valid until Wednesday 19th March.

Article added: Thursday 13 March 2025