Erroll Bennett
Erroll Bennett (7 May 1950 – 2 June 2025) was a Tahitian footballer, who spent most of his career with AS Central Sport. Bennett placed fifteenth in a 1999 poll by International Federation of Football History & Statistics to find the Player of the Century for Oceania.[1]
Bennett was part of the Tahitian national squad for the 1973 Oceania Cup, the first ever Oceania-wide international soccer tournament. Bennett scored three goals in the tournament, and played in the final, which Tahiti lost 2–0 to New Zealand.[2]
He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1977 after which he refused to play football on Sundays. Following Bennett's baptism, Napoléon Spitz, the head of Bennett's team, held a meeting in which he said his team would stop Sunday play and all football teams in that division agreed to move games to weeknights.
Bennett was also a police officer in Tahiti. He was the father of Naea Bennett, who also played for the Tahiti national team.[3]
Bennett died on 2 June 2025, at the age of 75.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ "IFFHS Century Elections". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 12 January 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
- ^ "Oceanian Cup 1973". RSSSF. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
- ^ Article from Richard Vansam, in France Football, n°1.855, 27 October 1981, page 23.
- ^ Football : Errol Bennett nous a quittés, la Polynésie pleure son champion (in French)
External links
[edit]- Michael Otterson. "Erroll Bennett: Tahitian Soccer Star", Ensign, Oct. 1982.
- Meridian Magazine article with section on Bennett
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- 1950 births
- 2025 deaths
- Converts to Mormonism
- French Polynesian Latter Day Saints
- French Polynesian men's footballers
- Tahiti men's international footballers
- French Polynesian police officers
- 1973 Oceania Cup players
- 1980 Oceania Cup players
- Men's association football forwards
- French police officers
- 20th-century French sportsmen
- French Polynesian football biography stubs