The morning sun pours in through the small office window, the bright white light throwing the picture off, the camera struggling to pick out details as our Zoom call boots up.
As things slowly come into focus, our interviewee looms from the darkness, running his fingers through a mop of ginger hair left flat by his recently removed grey beanie.
With his navy-blue knit and dark red beard, it would be incredibly easy to mistake Dan Keat for a local – there’s even a hint of a Swedish twang to his distinct New Zealand accent as we exchange pleasantries – but while he may very much look the part, the former New Zealand international is a long way from home as he speaks to Kick360 from Torslanda, a small urban settlement on the outskirts of Gothenburg.
Born in England but raised in Aotearoa, it’s fair to say Keat’s career has been unconventional; a journey that took him from the suburbs of Wellington to Sweden, via the bright lights of Southern California.
“My brother started playing when he was five. I was 17 months younger and extremely jealous he got to go to football training,” says the former All Whites midfielder.
“I just annoyed them until they let me play, to be honest. From that day until I was about 15, I always played in my brother’s team. Dad was the coach. I tell him now, he was really good, because he knew what he didn’t know and just let us play all the time. Without knowing it, he gave us the opportunity to really develop as footballers while having a lot of fun with really good friends.”
In a country dominated by rugby and cricket, soccer is not the first choice sport for many Kiwi kids but it was Keat’s Red Devils relatives back in the UK who encouraged his love for the beautiful game.
“My father’s from England and played football as a kid but switched to rugby as he got older. But my family in the UK were all United fans; they sent me videos and my grandparents subscribed me to the United magazine for Christmas. My older cousins were all wearing United shirts, so you wanted one, too… you got sucked into that little world.
“But in New Zealand, it was quite different. I grew up after the time of players like Wynton Rufer. I wasn’t watching the ’82 World Cup side – a big moment in New Zealand’s sporting history – so it was a little bit of a different time. There weren’t football role models, so you had to blaze your own path in a certain sense.
“I wanted to play football at a high level, which meant I knew at quite a young age that I’d have to leave New Zealand.
“I went to Blackburn to trial when I was 17, but I felt a little bit left out… I wasn’t really interested in just playing PlayStation for nine hours after training. I found it quite hard to connect with the players who had come up through the academy system. And I wasn’t ready, I wasn’t good enough at that time, I don’t think, to play at that level.”
Some frank advice from Rovers defender and All Whites legend Ryan Nelsen helped Keat make a life-changing decision.
“I was decent in school and felt there was more I wanted to explore which fit with what Ryan was saying at the time. Also, Mum had represented New Zealand at four different sports, which affected her going to University, so there was a part of her that really wanted me to go.
“The opportunity to go to Dartmouth, play football and graduate with a world class education was something I lucked into in many ways. I didn’t know the full extent of what I was going into, or how good an opportunity it was, but I went. I was able to develop as a player under really good coaches.”
After four years playing for the ‘Big Green’ in the American collegiate system, Keat was given the chance to finally turn professional when he was invited to enter the MLS draft and attend the combine, a four-day showcase for MLS hopefuls.
“It was miserable,” he chuckles.
“I only lasted one game. Wayne Rooney’s brother (John) was in the combine. I blocked a shot from him and he hit me in the back of the heel, it fractured it. I tried to play the next day but it was no good – I couldn’t move.”
Keat wondered if his chance might be over.
“As an international player in the MLS, it’s tough for a club to draft you because you take up an international spot.
“I sat there for the first day of the draft and didn’t get picked. Players were being drafted and given their scarfs and I wasn’t. It was a tough time.
“Luckily for me, I had played in a national tournament against UCLA. Los Angeles Galaxy coach Bruce Arena’s son was an assistant coach there at the time, so Bruce was watching the game. I must have done quite well and he had a good understanding of who I was. I got picked up on day two, I got a phone call sitting there in Boston saying the Galaxy have picked you’…
“They didn’t need a young draft player to come in and win them the MLS Cup because they had world class players already. I was lucky that I got into an environment that gave me the time to recover from my injury, chill out and get going.”
The lad from Lower Hutt was heading for Los Angeles, joining a Galaxy side filled with superstars like David Beckham, Juninho, Juan Pablo Angel and Landon Donovan. For the childhood Manchester United fan, it was a surreal experience.
“I’d had a poster of David Beckham on my wall how ever many years before and you walk in the changing room and our lockers are right next to each other, our names are there on our lockers, it was a pretty daunting experience. But over time, you learn those players are really good people. David especially was really nice to me.
“There’s such a disparity between the highest and lowest paid players in the MLS and where they are in their careers. Once they realise you’re there to work, be a good professional and you’re not going to be taking pictures every day and annoying people, they begin to respect you. As you have more conversations about football and life, the more those relationships build.
“The thing I learnt most from those players was how they looked after themselves, how they trained every day… they had to drag David off the field every day because he just loved playing football. At his age, it probably wasn’t the best thing for him, but he was such a good pro… you learn as much from just watching what they do as getting tips or advice. He was shooting with us young guys after training, and when Robbie (Keane) came in, he was the same. They just loved the game.”
After failing to break in to the Galaxy first team – no mean feat given the plethora of stars at their disposal – Keat switched SoCal for Sweden. He joined Falkenbergs and then GAIS where he saw out his playing days before eventually making the transition into coaching. Having played across the world for club and country, experiencing all the highs and lows professional football has to offer along the way, Keat felt he had plenty to offer and was ready to give back.
He was in for a shock.
“Basically, when I left playing I thought I knew everything. Then I met Declan (Edge, Olé Football Academy) and quickly realised I knew nothing about coaching. I had ideas about what I thought went on and what coaches do, but I found when I finished playing that things could be different.
“I think my mentality was probably what made me a pro. I was determined I was going to make it, whatever level it was. I’d say I was very average but I worked my arse off to get where I got. I could have been a better player though if I’d had certain experiences at certain times, or a certain way of playing, with different experiences to the way I grew up playing.
“At the time, New Zealand was very much like the old English system – very structured, sideline- driven and drill-based. There was a lot of fear of making mistakes. I think there is a different, better way, and young kids are capable of so much more and can do so much more than I did.
“When I met Declan, I saw a way that could make that happen. I got to re-learn and re-imagine everything I knew about football and player development and for a lot of young coaches, that’s a really cool thing to do. – to learn, as opposed to maybe picking up cones at a high level rather than actually coaching.
“Last year here at Torslanda, the other young coach we have working with the kids and I probably ran about 250-300 sessions. If I was an assistant coach at a higher level, I might have done one or two. The experience of doing, doing, doing and learning in different ways has been really fun and cool.”
Scandinavia has been a popular proving ground for young Kiwis in recent years, with the likes of Joe Bell, Callum McCowatt, Elijah Just and many more Olé Football products continuing their development in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
“The mentality of the Kiwi player really connects with Swedish culture and with Danish and Norwegian culture as well. Kiwis are pretty laid back, low maintenance, low ego and they generally get on and do the work. That’s the stereotype of Kiwi players and Kiwi people in general and I think that meshes really well with Scandinavian culture because they are like that as well. I think they find it easier to come in than players from different backgrounds who can be more difficult to manage when a Swede or a Scandinavian is not quite as used to their culture.
“I felt like I was welcomed in when I came to Falkenbergs. I was the only foreigner at the time, which was really good for me. I couldn’t sit and eat with all the other foreigners, because there weren’t any. I just got on with it.”
With these youngsters thriving in Europe and the Wellington Phoenix Academy pumping out a generation of talented prospects, the future certainly looks bright for New Zealand football.
“There are some good young players in New Zealand. I think time will tell how that plays out. We need to continue to be really brave as a footballing country. I wasn’t good enough to make a huge impact on the national squads I was in, but we have a lot of really young, exciting players and it’s time for us to be brave and go out and attack teams.
“I think (All Whites coach) Danny (Hay) is trying now with the national team. They have the players to go out and attack, to try and beat teams and win games whereas we’ve been quite defensive in the past. By setting the standard and playing exciting, attacking football, the national team can inspire the next generation as well. I think the national team have a responsibility, in my mind, to inspire that next generation.”
For Keat, Newcastle United’s big money January move for All Whites centre forward Chris Wood epitomises just how far New Zealand football has come.
“There are enough good players out there now. Chris Wood just signed for Newcastle for £25m. That’s crazy, but amazing! I remember Chris from my time in the national team, when he was a young guy just coming up, but he just scored goals. That guy can just score goals.
“It’s cool, and it’s really fun for New Zealand football. I just hope these young guys keep pushing through, they’re happy and they enjoy being a pro, because it’s not an easy business.
“We should support them as a country when they play too, because sometimes it’s an outlet for them to get home, see family and show themselves in front of people over there. You never get to play in front of your parents, unless they get over to Europe. I hope the national team is a fun place for those young players.”
Speaking with Keat, you get the feeling football perhaps wasn’t always a fun place for him. He’s quick to downplay his achievements and be critical of himself in a way that feels like more than just trademark Kiwi self-deprecation.
“I mean, it’s not all Ferraris and nightclubs, right?” he says.
“I think there’s a balance. For nine years, I got the chance to live my dream in a lot of senses, and it was a real privilege. We have to remember it’s a real privilege to do what we love to do every day.
“I think you have to be very strong and disregard all the noise that comes from outside – the distractions, but also anyone who isn’t in the arena telling you how good or not good you are. No offence to [journalists], but you need to be immune to people who write about what you do, but don’t really understand.
“It’s very hard to criticise someone from the outside. The players and coaches know if they’ve had a good day or a bad day, and we have to be respectful of their journey. As players, we have to remember we are human too. We need to recognise that you’re only human, you’re going to have good days, you’re going to have bad days and just try to block out the other noise, because most of it is crap.
“If you can find an identity outside of football, then that’s very helpful. It’s hard for a lot of players, especially those coming to the end of their career, to remember they are not defined as a human being by how good they are on the football field. They are defined by a lot of other things, like how they are as a person or inside their family. At the end of the day, all those other bits and pieces are more important than how good they are at kicking balls. We have to continue to support footballers to explore other sides of themselves and show them they can have a career after football.
“It’s a difficult business, because every day when you go to your work, there can be 80-thousand people at the game and millions more watching on TV, sitting behind their keyboards writing about you. It’s a lot of scrutiny. Finding an identity outside of football is key for players being OK.”
An imminent arrival has certainly helped Keat appreciate life outside of football and leant him a new sense of perspective.
“I have my first kid on the way, so I have to start thinking that way! I look back now and I had a lot of really great experiences and lived what many people would consider their dream. But as a footballer that can end by the time you’re 30!
“I hope to live another 70 years so what the hell am I going to do with that time? I really enjoy being involved in football, coaching, and this project we are working on here in Torslanda to really do something different. I enjoy helping young players explore the game but also use it as a tool to be better people and live good and functional lives, because it’s a pretty hard world we’re living in. I know that sounds a bit depressing, but I think we can use football to help these kids deal with things and explore how they’re eating, sleeping, breathing, dealing with stress and being healthy.
“I’m really at peace with my football career. I’m honest about it and I think I thought I was better than I was and knew more than I did at times. But it’s a humbling experience finishing playing and learning a whole new way of looking at football which has re-invigorated my love for the game again.”
Role models are a recurring theme, from a lack of them growing up to the important role the current crop have to act as an inspiration for the generation of Kiwi footballers yet to come.
During our conversation, Keat shares a piece of advice someone gave him when he was younger, one that can easily be applied to his place in the game.
“No matter who you meet and how much you like them or not, you can learn something from everybody.”
The midfielder may not have enjoyed the career of a Wynton Rufer, a Chris Wood or a Winston Reid, and you feel he certainly wouldn’t put himself forward as a role model; that’s not the Kiwi way…
But any young footballer could certainly do worse than aspire to emulate the work ethic, resilience, strength to admit shortcomings, and bravery to take the path less trodden he demonstrated throughout his career.
And while, in his own words, he may never have had a huge impact on New Zealand football during his playing days, Dan Keat’s legacy could yet be felt elsewhere; moulding the next generation of stars through coaching and mentorship.
