Football On Easter Island
Football, the beloved sport that spans the globe, from the top of Norway to the bottom of New Zealand, no matter where you are there is always at least someone who is a football fanatic. People from more populated nations have better accessibility to the sport, but what about the off the beaten track places. Oceania is the prime example, small island nations, focusing more on their rugby teams also enjoy football and have leagues and international fixtures. Places such as Kiribati, not famous for their football but do have a structure in place to allow competition. This story is slightly different.
Heading over to the South American nation of Chile. A footballing land with past triumphs, World Cup regulars and two times winner of the Copa America. Headline names include Alexis Sanchez and Eduardo Vargas, two players who left their nation and pursued topflight European glory. Chile has a strong football league, Colo-Colo being the most successful club in Chile, winning 34 domestic league titles. Along with their domestic success Colo-Colo are also the only Chilean team to win the Copa Libertadores, doing so in 1991.
Now we turn to the more unheard-of part of this story, Chile’s islands. Rapa Nui, many will recognise the more commonly used name Easter Island, is labelled a special territory of Chile with a population just less than 8,000. Located 3,500km west of the mainland this place is famous for its Moai statues (the big heads) with around 900 of them being found around the island. Believed to be constructed by the early Rapa Nui people between 1250 and 1300 many of these statues have been restored and bring many tourists to the island every year.
Does Rapa Nui have a footballing culture? The island isn’t known for its football, but it is the most popular sport on the island. Such a small island with a small population they have found enough players to form their own league and even have their own representative team. The El Competidores is the pinnacle of Rapa Nui football. Information about the league is very difficult to find online with the majority of fixtures and the league tables being shared on WhatsApp groups for the players and the island residents. The last known league champions are Moeroa FC, serial winners that have the most decorated trophy cabinet in the island.
Rapa Nui, as a special territory of Chile, does not have its own national team, however a representative team has played on behalf of the island. In 2009, Chile’s prestige cup competition, the Chilean Cup/ Copa Chile, sent a special invite to the island for them to enter the competition. A local team of the best players were assembled to play the fixture. In stepped manager Miguel Angel Gamboa, an ex-professional player who represented Chile at the World Cup in Spain in 1982. Using his knowledge of the game he brought the islanders up to speed ready for the visit of their mainland opponents.
Who did Rapa Nui play? No other than Chilean titans Colo-Colo. The most decorated club in Chilean history would be visiting the island as the opponent for the first ever official competitive game in Rapa Nui history. Unbelievably around 4,000 people came out to watch the occasion with FIFA labelling it the ‘Game of the century’. Even fans of Colo-Colo made the trip, selling their allocated 500 tickets to the event.
Upon arrival Colo-Colo must have been shocked, an atmosphere like no other welcomed them, often described as a carnival of a day. Traditional Polynesian food was being served, face painting was available, and the acts didn’t stop off the pitch. Before kicking off the Rapa Nui team performed a sacred tribal dance, similar to the Haka the All-Blacks rugby team perform before games. Filmed by cameras suspended on two cranes, the island was determined to make this as memorable as possible and to get every angle of the footage so the historic day can be reflected on in years to come. The game was also broadcast live on Chilean TV back on the mainland for everyone to catch a glimpse of this once in a lifetime game. The game was one that would be remembered all over Chile, not for the result as Rapa Nui fell to a 4-0 defeat, but just the fact the country’s most successful team travelled to play on a pitch covered in a bumpy surface yards away from a beach.
Incredibly this is not the only occasion of which a representative team has participated in the Copa Chile. Just last year in April 2024 the Football Federation of Chile invited Robinson Crusoe Island and Alejandro Selkirk Island to merge and play under the name Juan Fernandez Archipelago. Robinson Crusoe Island is tiny and with a population of just 900 hasn’t got much to choose from in terms of footballers, but it is more than 57 people that Alejandro Selkirk Island has to offer. A total population of less than 1,000. Not the best preparation for a Copa Chile game.
The team were led by Jorge Garces, he moved to the island a couple months before the game to prepare the team for their challenge. The island welcomed the Santiago Wanderers for the cup tie, ironically Garces’ old team where he won a Primera League title. Santiago Wanderers have in fact won three league titles and three Copa Chile’s but find themselves in the second tier of Chilean football today.
The gulf between the players, on paper at least, was massive. Professional footballers playing against fishermen, some players labelled as ‘masters of the sea’, even a sixteen-year-old, Fredy Arredondo, turned out and he was described as the young talent on the island.
The game did not play out as one would have expected, the islanders held out for over an hour before conceding with goalkeeper Hector Melo putting in an inspired performance. However, with the party atmosphere on the side-lines this story didn’t end here, Juan Fernandez was awarded a penalty just minutes later with the islands number 10 Osvaldo Salas converting from the spot to send the local crowd into raptures. Unfortunately for the representative team Santiago Wanderers did find a winner and the game ended 2-1, a defeat but an incredible result for the amateurs against the former multiple champions.
Two different representative island teams competing in the Copa Chile, both showing joy and determination throughout and both did their homelands proud. When will the next island team show their faces in the Copa Chile? Who knows, but when it does happen it’s always a story to look out for, and maybe one day we can see one of these teams topple the giants of the Chilean mainland.
Written and Researched by BSc Cavan Campbell
