Tahiti
Home; 2009/12
When writing about the shirts in this collection, I mainly give details of the men’s senior team. This is not that the feats of others are less important, but just that it helps me keep posts concise. Where there are notable achievements from women’s teams or underage, I try my best to include that. However, this post is going to be different, and that is because this Tahiti shirt is a bit special. It is a matchworn shirt of Heimanu Taiarui, who plays for the Tahiti beach soccer national team, the Tiki Toa. Not just that, but Tauarui happens to be one of the best players to have ever played beach soccer. So I am very happy indeed to have added this to my collection.
In the traditional grass based version of the game of football, Tahiti are famous for appearing in the 2013 Confederations Cup after their historic winning the 2012 OFC Nations Cup. But on the sand, Tahiti has grown even further, becoming a true powerhouse of that game. At the time of writing, they have contested two World Cup finals and have also won two OFC Beach Soccer championships. This shirt was worn by Taiarui at the 2011 Intercontinental Cup in UAE. This is a tournament akin to the FIFA Confederations Cup, and is organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSW), who were the original developers and governors of the beach game before FIFA recognised the sport, and subsequently partnered with BSW to grow the game. Taiarui was awarded the Golden Ball at the 2015 World Cup for being that tournament’s best player . In the same year he was short listed for the Beach Soccer Stars award for Player of the Year, AKA the ‘Beach Ballon D’or’ as it is voted on by players and managers. While he didn’t win that award, he was included in the World Team of the Year at the ceremony. In fact, in 2019 France Football magazine named Taiarui in their all-time Top 10 of ‘Beach Soccer Legends’.
It might seem logical that Tahiti would be good a beach soccer, with the island’s pristine beaches and year-round warm weather. But with a population of just 190,000, to become a global force in any sport is quite the achievement. For contrast, their 2017 World Cup final opponents were Brazil, who have a population of over 200 million (and aren’t exactly lacking in good weather or beaches themselves). David versus Goliath springs to mind. And more impressively, Tahiti are also relative newcomers to the beach game with their first ever competitive game being played in 2006. Taiarui though, did come from a high pedigree football family. He speaks himself of many relatives playing on different Tahiti teams, including his mother who captained the Tahiti women’s national team. However, Taiarui was still working as a fisherman when he first linked up with the Tiki Toa in 2010. A year later, he was wearing this shirt in the Intercontinental Cup and then the World Cup.
He has since won a Club World Cup with Barcelona’s beach team, and a Euro Cup with Sporting Clube Portugal. He has played for clubs in Italy, Germany and Switzerland (where he now lives) also, often in the same year as beach soccer allows players to play for different clubs in different tournaments. All in all, it has been a glittering career, which was meteoric in its development. But he keeps his feet on the ground, and even spent a brief time working as a welder in Tahiti while between professional contracts in 2017.
This shirt design was also worn my many Tahiti teams on the grass field too between 2009 and 2013 including winning the aforementioned senior OFC Nations Cup in 2012 and the appearance at the mens u20 Word Cup in 2009. It is a template from Lotto, who were supplying many of the Oceania countries at the time.
