Lionel Messi. Harry Kane. Ousmane Dembele. Ángel Di María. Erling Haaland. Lautaro Martínez. Vinicius Junior. Kylian Mbappe. Cole Palmer. Luis Suárez. Julian Alvarez. Thomas Müller. What do these players all have in common? They all scored in last summer’s FIFA Club World Cup.
But out of the 130 players who scored in the first-ever edition of the expanded Club World Cup, only one was an amateur player: Auckland City’s Christian Gray.
“Scoring goals has always been there for me, but maybe not as much as I’d like at times,” stated Gray in an exclusive World Football Index interview. “It’s always been nice to score goals from set-pieces off my head, but I want to score more goals, to be honest.”
Born in the Gisborne Region of New Zealand, Gray was raised by two New Zealand sporting legends. His mother, Sandra Edge, won a gold, silver and bronze medal in the 1987, 1991, and 1995 World Netball Championships, whilst his father, Rodger Gray, scored four goals in 39 caps between 1989 and 1997 and wore the captain’s armband for the New Zealand football team, as well as representing Mt Wellington, Waitakere City F.C., and Waitemata FC. Despite starting off as a striker and then a midfielder, Gray would eventually follow in his father’s footsteps by playing as a center back for Wellington College before launching his senior career with Waitakere United in 2016.
Gray oscillated from Hamilton Wanderers to Birkenhead United to Eastern Suburbs before eventually making the move to the nation’s dominant side – Auckland City – on January 1, 2022. Unlike New Zealand’s only two professional clubs (Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix), who play in the Australian league and are thus banned from competing in Oceanian and Asian continental competitions, Auckland City are an amateur side that plays in the New Zealand top-flight. They’ve been allowed to form a regional and continental dynasty, winning 10 league titles (including last year’s edition) as well as 13 OFC Champions League titles, including the last four.
“We currently have two professional teams in New Zealand that are playing in the Australian league, but early next year, there will be two more teams from New Zealand playing in a professional Oceania league. I think we’ll see top-level players from around the world, including some All Whites players, who come to play in it. Whether or not we have the infrastructure and resources to build a professional league, I’m not sure, but there’s definitely a lot of talent and potential in this country.”
As a result of their regional stranglehold, Auckland have competed in more FIFA Club World Cups than any other team in world football. After winning the bronze medal in 2014, Auckland would proceed to lose their next eight matches in the competition. After falling 10-0 to Bayern Munich and 6-0 to Benfica, all signs pointed to them suffering another heavy defeat in their final group stage match vs. Boca Juniors. But despite conceding early on, Auckland were able to weather the storm and pull level after halftime as Gray headed home from a corner kick. Auckland would hold on for a memorable 1-1 draw in Nashville, prompting various pundits like Leonardo Bertozzi and Paulo Vinicius Coelho to declare it one of the greatest upsets in the history of the tournament. He then returned to New Zealand, where he spent several months doing his 9/5 job as a soccer coach / PE teacher before traveling to Egypt to face off against Pyramids in the FIFA Intercontinental Cup.
“[My goal] was all over the media in New Zealand, so even the non-football people were aware of what was going on. I came back in the holidays and didn’t see any of my students at school for a couple of weeks, but from what I understand, they were quite inspired and buzzing over what happened after watching me on TikTok, Instagram and other outlets. There’s definitely a lot of awareness around what happened…maybe not as much as it would’ve been in Argentina or Brazil, but I did notice that everyone was aware of it.”
Gray followed his Boca heroics with goals in back-to-back games vs. Western Springs and Eastern Suburbs before coming undone in 3-0 defeats to Pyramids and Birkenhead United, scoring an own goal in the latter. He was able to keep things neat and today at the back as Auckland beat Western Suburbs and Wellington Olympic, before contributing an 87th-minute equalizer to secure a draw vs. Auckland FC’s reserves. It was more of the same on November 7, excelling in the heart of the back three and guiding the defending champions to a 4-2 win vs. Auckland United. Despite having to balance his playing career with his teaching career and coaching career as well as his online graduate program, Gray is enjoying a career-best form.
“First of all, I’m keen to play as much as possible, stay available and stay injury-free, and maybe score some more goals. As a team, I think it would be a cool way to finish off 2025 with the National League title, considering the year we’ve had, and I think that’s the expectation for us. It’s now back to normal for us as we have one game a week. For 10 weeks in the winter season, we were away for long periods of time and had a lot of midweek games, but now, we’re back to a consistent schedule with the National League. We have just one game a week and one competition to focus on, which is quite nice. Depending on whether it’s a Saturday or a Sunday game, we’ll train 3-4 times a week.”
As he prepares to turn 29 years of age, Christian Gray is enjoying the best form of his entire career and emerging as one of the first names on Auckland’s team sheet, leading the team with 58.2 accurate passes per 90 (84% accuracy) and 4.2 clearances per game, as well as ranking second to Adam Mitchell (5.0) with 4.4 accurate long balls per game. And similarly to others like Sergio Ramos, Adam Buksa, and Kamil Glik, he has a magnet of a head that allows him to get on the end of crosses and set-pieces and test the goalkeeper with pace and power. It’s precisely why, despite approaching his 30s, he is still hopeful of playing professionally and earning a maiden call-up to the All Whites.
“I’ve been playing a lot recently, and like most if not all players, I want to be playing. If I keep taking my opportunities, then the position’s there. It’s actually quite a competitive position in our team as we have a few players that can play center back. So when you’ve got the opportunity to play, you’ve gotta hang on to it because if you get injured or don’t perform, then it might be quite hard to get that spot back.”
With three matches remaining in the regular season, Auckland City currently sit sixth in the table, level on 11 points with Christchurch United and Auckland FC’s reserves (with a game in hand on both), and two behind third-placed Miramar Rangers. More importantly, they currently find themselves four points behind Wellington Olympics and five behind league leaders Western Springs, with the top two sides set to face off in a winner-takes-all playoff match to determine the national championship. In order to come away with another championship, Auckland City need to win their next three matches vs. Wellington Phoenix’s Reserves, Western Springs AFC, and Coastal Spirit, but they also need a lot of luck to go their way. Above all, though, they’ll need Christian Gray to continue banging in the goals.
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