Neil Emblen

Neil Emblen
Personal information
Full name	Neil Emblen
Date of birth	19 June 1971 (age 53)
Place of birth	Bromley, England
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Central midfielder
Team information
Current team	New Zealand, Colorado Rapids (assistant coach)
Senior career*
Years	Team
1987–1990	Tonbridge Angels
1992–1993	Sittingbourne
1993–1994	Millwall
1994–1997	Wolverhampton Wanderers
1997–1998	Crystal Palace
1998–2001	Wolverhampton Wanderers
2001–2003	Norwich City
2003	→ Walsall (loan)
2003–2005	Walsall
2005–2007	New Zealand Knights
2007–2011	Waitakere United
2013–2014	Western Springs
Managerial career
2009–2012	Waitakere United (player-coach)
2012	New Zealand U23
2012–2013	New Zealand (assistant coach)
2013–2017	Western Springs
2014	New Zealand (interim head coach)
2018–2022	Colorado Rapids (assistant coach)
2019–2022	New Zealand (assistant coach)
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Neil Emblen (born 19 June 1971) is an English former professional footballer who is the assistant coach of Colorado Rapids and New Zealand.

He has served as assistant head coach of New Zealand under Ricki Herbert and of Anthony Hudson, and was briefly the interim head coach prior to Hudson's appointment. He was the head coach of the New Zealand U23's during the 2012 Summer Olympics.

He spent the majority of his career in English football with Millwall, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Crystal Palace, Norwich City and Walsall, before moving to New Zealand.

Club career

Emblen started his career as a youth player at Tonbridge Angels before moving to Sittingbourne and then Millwall for a fee of £210,000 including Michael Harle. After spending a year with the Lions, Emblen was sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers for £600,000, where he would become a regular during his three years at Molineux.^[2]

A £2,000,000 move to Crystal Palace beckoned in 1997 but would last just one season, and in 1998, after scoring two goals for Palace in the FA Cup against Scunthorpe United,^[3] Emblen moved back to Wolves in exchange for the West Midlands club writing off the remainder of the £2million still owed as part of the initial transfer. Emblen's second three-year spell saw him gain favour with the Wolves fans as he made the attacking midfield role his own. It ended in 2001 when he moved to Norwich City for £500,000.^[2]

Emblen started just six games in a two-year spell with the Canaries because of chronic knee injury problems and spent the last few months of his contract on loan to Walsall (in two separate spells), whom he joined permanently on a two-year deal in June 2003. Upon leaving Walsall in 2005, Emblen moved to New Zealand to join the now-defunct New Zealand Knights. After the Knights ceased playing, Emblen moved to Waitakere United.^[4]

Coaching career

Emblen was appointed player-coach of Waitakere United from 2009 to 2012, winning three successive ASB Premiership titles during his time at the club. In 2013, he was appointed in the same role at Western Springs, taking them from the Lotto Sport Italia NRFL Division 2 to the Lotto Sport Italia NRFL Premier within two years.^[2]

In 2012, he managed the New Zealand U23 team at the London Olympics.^[4]^[2] In 2014, he was named as the New Zealand interim head coach, taking charge of two matches; a 4–2 loss to Japan and a goalless draw with South Africa.

In February 2018 he was appointed by Anthony Hudson as assistant coach of Colorado Rapids where is still one of the assistant coaches.^[5]