Simione Tamanisau (born 5 June 1982) is a

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

an 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 lea ...

, who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

and striker for

Suva Suva (, ) is the Capital city, capital and the most populous city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rew ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

Club career

Tamanisau has spent his entire domestic career so far in his native Fiji. During the 2010–11 season, Tamanisau had a loan spell in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

with Hekari United. He is mostly used as a goalkeeper but able to play as a striker when needed. On 19 October 2016, he scored the winning goal for Rewa in their 2–1 victory against

in the National Football League match.

International career

Tamanisau earned his first call-up to the

Fiji national football team The Fiji men's national football team () is Fiji's national men's team and is controlled by the governing body of football in Fiji, the Fiji Football Association. The team plays most of their home games at the HFC Bank Stadium in Su ...

in 2003, during his inaugural season. He won five

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

that year. The following year, he played in his first

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

qualifying match when he kept goal in the 4–2 victory over

on 12 May 2004. He played another five matches in the qualification campaign for the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams represe ...

, conceding 11 goals in total. He made a further two appearances for the team in 2005, and the team did not play during 2006. During qualification for the

2010 World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

in South Africa, Tamanisau became embroiled in controversy when he was denied entry to New Zealand to play a Second Qualifying Round tie. He was stopped at customs because his father-in-law, a military police officer, had been involved in the

2006 Fijian coup d'état The Fijian coup d'état of December 2006 was a coup d'état in Fiji carried out by Commodore (rank), Commodore Frank Bainimarama against Prime Minister of Fiji, Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and President Josefa Iloilo. It was the culminatio ...

. The match was eventually postponed with Fiji refusing to play without their first-choice goalkeeper. On 19 November 2008, the game was played with Fiji emerging 2–0 winners. Following this match, Tamanisau spent over two years out of the Fiji team before returning to make seven more appearances for his country during 2011. On 16 July 2016, Tamanisau was selected by the Fiji under-23 team for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

as one of three overage players. In 2019, he was selected for the

2019 Pacific Games The 16th Pacific Games (), also known as Apia 2019, were held from 7 to 20 July 2019. The Games were held in Apia, Samoa, returning there for the first time since 2007. It was the third time overall that the Pacific Games were held in Samoa. The ...

. Fiji won a bronze medal.

International career statistics

References

External links

* *
Record at FIFA Tournaments
nbsp;– FIFA 1982 births Living people Fijian men's footballers Fiji men's international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Navua F.C. players Rewa F.C. players People from Tailevu Province Lautoka F.C. players Hekari United F.C. players 2004 OFC Nations Cup players 2008 OFC Nations Cup players 2012 OFC Nations Cup players 2016 OFC Nations Cup players Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Fiji {{Fiji-footy-bio-stub