Benjamin Robert Sigmund (born 3 February 1981) is a New Zealand former international

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

. He represented New Zealand at under-17,

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and

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

level.

Club career

Born in Blenheim, Sigmund spent his early career with

Football Kingz Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ca ...

, Canterbury United,

Fawkner Blues Manningham United Blues Football Club is an Australian soccer club from Templestowe, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. The club was formed in 1965 by local Italian Australians and was formerly known as Fawkner Blues. In 2010, Fawkner SC split ...

and Auckland City. He signed for the

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

in 2008. On 9 July 2012 he signed a two-year contract extension keep him with the club until 2015. On 18 December 2015, Sigmund announced that he would retire from professional football at the end of the season. He subsequently joined amateur side

Cashmere Technical Cashmere Technical is an association football club based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was formed in early 2012 from the merger of two of the city's premier teams, Cashmere Wanderers and Woolston Technical. The two clubs had agreed to work to ...

in 2016.

International career

Sigmund made his senior international debut as a substitute in August 2000 against

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

, but did not earn a second cap until 2007, where he earned a call up to play

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the county ...

after nearly seven years in the football wilderness. On 6 September 2008 Sigmund scored his first international goal in a 3–1 win over New Caledonia with a header from a corner. Sigmund was named as part of the

2009 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup was the eighth Confederations Cup, and was held in South Africa from 14 June to 28 June 2009, as a prelude to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The draw was held on 22 November 2008 at the Sandton Convention Centre in J ...

New Zealand squad to travel to South Africa, and was more recently in the side the beat Bahrain in the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

qualification match on 14 November 2009. On 10 May 2010, Sigmund was named in New Zealand's final 23-man squad to compete at the

. On 29 September 2014, Sigmund retired from international football citing his desire to spend more time with his family.

Honours

Personal Honours: *

Member's Player of the Year: 2008–2009

References

External links

Ben Sigmund Interview
*
NZF – All White profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sigmund, Ben 1981 births Living people New Zealand association footballers New Zealand international footballers Canterbury United players Football Kingz F.C. players Auckland City FC players Wellington Phoenix FC players Sportspeople from Blenheim, New Zealand A-League Men players New Zealand Football Championship players Association football central defenders 2008 OFC Nations Cup players 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2010 FIFA World Cup players 2012 OFC Nations Cup players