A former Premier League striker has been appointed as the national team manager of a tiny Micronesian island.
Having once banged in the goals for Reading and Stoke, his task now will be to teach Nauru’s players how to find the net and win football matches.
Nauru, a miniscule island around 2,500 miles from Sydney, only founded a team last year and they are yet to play a match.
The ex-striker had some prolific seasons at Championship level before stepping up to the Premier League.
Dave Kitson (right) has been appointed as the manager of Nauru, a tiny Micronesian island
The former Reading striker takes charge of a team founded last year who are yet to play a game
The man in question is Dave Kitson, who is taking up his first managerial post.
Kitson played for a host of Football League clubs including Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, and Sheffield United but he is best known for his time at Reading.
Between 2003 and 2008, he scored 60 goals for the Royals in 146 outings and helped fire them to Premier League promotion.
His best seasons were between 2004 and 2006, when he scored 37 goals across two campaigns as Reading pushed for promotion and eventually won the Championship title.
Stoke made him their record signing for £5.5m in July 2008 but he never settled in Staffordshire, only scoring 5 goals in 40 games.
Gareth Johnson, Nauru’s Director of International Development, said: ‘I first came into contact with Dave during 2020 through our mutual interest in travel when we began discussing a few projects, one of them being Nauru.
‘As things have quickly progressed I am now happy to be in a position to offer him the management role.
‘He genuinely cares about the project. One of the reasons for such a high profile appointment is to help the game, not just in Nauru, but the whole region.
Kitson also played for Stoke in the Premier League and featured in all of England’s top four divisions
He fired Reading to promotion in 2005/06 after a couple of prolific campaigns up front
‘I recently spoke to the Presidents in the region and we’ve agreed to set up a Micronesia Football Federation and ideally run a tournament next summer.’
Kitson has his own academy where he coaches aspiring players.
Nauru are hoping to schedule a friendly against American Samoa later this year.
They are not currently a member of FIFA.
Kitson has experience with the lower levels of the game. He actually started his career with Hitchin Town Isthmian League Premier Division and stacked shelves at Sainsbury’s before earning a move to Cambridge United.
