Full name Christian Bouckenooghe Years Team Height 1.75 m | Playing position Role Football player Name Christian Bouckenooghe | |
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Date of birth (1977-02-07) February 7, 1977 (age 38) | ||
Christian "Kris" Bouckenooghe (born February 7, 1977) is a retired New Zealand association football player of Belgian and Cook Island Māori descent. He played as a defender in the lower divisions of Belgian football.
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Club career
He was born in the Cook Islands of a Cook Island Māori mother and a Belgian father, subsequently moving to New Zealand as a child, where he played his youth soccer. He has played for New Zealand at age-group level, including a play-off series against the South African under-23 team to qualify for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, scoring in the NZ team's narrow 3-4 and 0-1 losses in that series. All of his early career was spent as a midfielder or striker, until converting to defence at K.S.V. Roeselare in Belgium. His first professional club was Rotherham in England, who signed him as a teenager on the recommendation of former New Zealand national coach and ex Rotherham player, Kevin Fallon. From there he signed for KSV Roeselare in the 1990s, his first of two periods with the club. He is the first New Zealander to play in the Belgian First Division.
International career
Bouckenooghe played 35 A-internationals for the New Zealand national soccer team, the All Whites scoring 2 goals. His career highlights include playing at both the 1999 and 2003 Confederations Cup in Mexico and France respectively, which New Zealand qualified for as Oceania champions after beating Australia, previously the dominant power in the region.
Honours
Belgium Premier Division 2005-06 New Zealand International player of the year 1999