Exclusive: Chris Wood reveals his staggering future ambition

By Michael Burgess

All Whites’ captain Chris Wood has revealed his remarkable future ambition.

It feels like he has been around forever – the striker made his international debut in 2009 – but there could be a lot more to come. The 32-year-old hopes to play for another five or six seasons, at the highest level that he can.

Not only does he want to remain in the English Premier League for as long as possible but he also has his sights set on the 2030 Fifa World Cup.

“For me, football is my life,” says Wood. “And I do want to play as long as possible – until I can’t really. That’s the mindset and the plan at the moment. Five to six years is probably what I’m looking at. I’d love to go to 38 [years old] but that’s obviously down to a lot of things; club, national team, fitness, everything like that – it all rolls into one. So you can have a plan but as 16 years have shown me in football, plans don’t always work out.”

Still, Wood is working backwards from 2030, with the curtain call at another edition of football’s biggest show. He admits that might be a long-term, stretch goal but it isn’t completely unrealistic, given his achievements, his longevity so far and his single-minded pursuit of ongoing excellence.

“Loosely, it’s the 2030 World Cup,” explains Wood, when asked why he wanted to continue until 38. “Most footballers, certainly me, work in terms of cycles so obviously the next World Cup is 2026.

“I want to play till then and then the cycle after that becomes more down to where I’m playing, who I’m playing for and things like that. I can’t perceive where I’m going to be [but] hopefully, I’m still playing in the Premier League.

“That means I can still play national team and keep kicking on but you never know where football takes you. You can only look across the next couple of years at the moment, but long-term the plan is to play until 2030.”

Wood has reasons to be optimistic, currently enjoying one of the best periods of his career. There have been good spells before, especially at Burnley and at Leeds in the Championship, but this has been particularly special.

He has made a hot start to this season, with four goals in seven games. They have been important strikes too, including last Monday against Chelsea which earned a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, helping Nottingham Forest to 10th on the ladder. That form is off the back of an impressive second half of last season, with 11 goals in 16 matches.

It was quite a turnaround, considering his pre-season was compromised by the lingering effects of a hamstring injury (“probably the worst of my career”), before he struggled to get game time, with only four starts across the first 17 games.

His revival coincided with the arrival of new manager Nuno Espirito Santo after Steve Cooper was sacked in mid-December. It was a fraught time, with Forest near the relegation zone, but Wood responded well. He grabbed a goal and an assist in Nuno’s first game, before an unforgettable hat trick three days later at Newcastle, in a 3-1 win over his former club.

Wood has thrived under the Portuguese – with 15 league goals in 23 appearances – and says the recipe is simple.

“It’s faith from a manager,” says Wood. “Everybody likes to have faith shown in them, it’s where players do their best work. I wouldn’t say he took a chance on me, but at the beginning, he put me in and it worked well for both of us.

“And then from now on, it’s just about trying to repay the faith that he has shown in me. I like to think we’ve got a good working relationship. He’s a great manager, he works hard and he’s worked really well for me so far. So long may it continue.”

Wood has some grand ambitions – especially around 2030 – but he has always dreamed big, ever since he arrived in England as a wide-eyed 17-year-old from the Waikato. And he has always been a thorough professional, prepared to sacrifice where other contemporaries wouldn’t and is reaping the rewards now.

“I feel good, I feel as sharp as ever, as fit as ever,” says Wood. “I’m ageing quite well, which is the nice thing about it. Recovery is the most important thing. Things have changed, everyone looks after their bodies, nutrition-wise, strength-wise, gym-wise so you can play as long as possible.”

“Maybe 15-20 years ago players didn’t take care of themselves as much as possible, so that’s why you saw them dropping out of the league at 32, 33. The mentality has shifted now and now you can play until you are 35 easy enough, as long as you take care of yourself and you are lucky with injuries. You are not done after 30 and people still perform.”

Wood cites Jamie Vardy, who has managed more than 100 Premier League goals for Leicester past his 30th birthday.

“Age is just a number as long as you can still do everything on the pitch,” said Wood.

There are local examples too. The incomparable Wynton Rufer was still turning heads for the Auckland Kingz at 39 and had been a controversial omission from the All Whites a few years before that. Ivan Vicelich was 38 when he was a standout for Auckland City at the 2014 Fifa Club World Cup, honoured with the Bronze Ball, while 36-year-old Simon Elliott was an influential figure for the All Whites at the 2010 World Cup.

Whatever happens, Wood is on track to set records that might never be broken. Now with 77 caps, he could become the first man to reach 100 A internationals for New Zealand (Vicelich had 88 caps), while also eclipsing the marks of Steve Sumner and Brian Turner, who managed 105 and 101 overall appearances respectively, including games against club sides.

And Wood will take his scoring tally – now at 35 after netting in the 3-0 win over Tahiti on Friday – even further into the distance.

For now, though, the focus is on a rare appearance in Auckland, against world No 132 Malaysia on Monday (7pm) at North Harbour Stadium, which looms as a great opportunity to bank a victory over a non-Oceania team.

“It’s not often we go into games expected to win,” admits Wood. “When we play around the world normally we are fighting to compete with the other teams, so it’s a different challenge and I guess we will be the favourite. It’s about trying to dominate the game, trying to create more chances, put on a show and score goals.

“It doesn’t always mean it happens like that but we are looking forward to having that opportunity to try that.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission