Chris James

Chris James
Chris James (2013)
Personnel
Surname	Christopher Paul James
birthday	4th July 1987
place of birth	Wellington ,  New Zealand
size	181 cm
position	attacking midfielder
Juniors
Years	station
2000-2006	Fulham FC
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2006-2008	Fulham FC	0 (0)
2008-2009	Tampere United	19 (4)
2008	→  Tampere PV  (loan)	1 (0)
2009	→  FC Ilves  (loan)	1 (1)
2010	Barnet FC	2 (0)
2011–2012	APIA Leichhardt Tigers	18 (4)
2012–	Kuopion PS	19 (4)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
	England U17
	England U -18
2005-2006	England U-19
2006-2009	New Zealand U-20	at least 8 (7)
2006-2009	New Zealand	16 (1)
1 Only league games are given. As of November 27, 2012

Christopher "Chris" Paul James (born July 4, 1987 in Wellington ) is a New Zealand football player in the position of an attacking midfielder .

Club career

James went to England at the age of 13 and finally joined the youth department of Fulham FC after an unsuccessful trial at Arsenal FC . In 2006 he signed a professional contract with Fulham, but did not make the jump to the professional team and played in the reserve team until his departure. In spring 2008 he moved to the reigning Finnish champions Tampere United , where he was the fourth New Zealander in club history after Lee Jones (1999-2001), Noah Hickey (2001-2003) and Gerard Davis (2002).

His first season at Tampere was mixed, so he came in his 17 missions on three goals, Tampere finished the season only in seventh place. In the 2009 season he was hardly considered and left the club at the end of the season. At the end of March 2010 he received a contract with the English fourth division club FC Barnet until the end of the season, which was not extended. In 2011 he was hired by the APIA Leichhardt Tigers in Australia in the NSW Premier League , where he played 18 league games until his departure in 2012, in which he scored four goals. In the same year he joined the Finnish first division team Kuopion PS and has made 19 championship appearances, four goals and one assist to date (as of November 27, 2012) .

National team

James played for England's youth teams before joining the New Zealand national team in the summer of 2006 and making his international debut in a friendly against reigning world champions Brazil. In January 2007 he took part with the New Zealand U-20 selection in the Oceanic qualifying tournament for the Junior World Cup 2007 and was the top scorer of his team with six goals in six games. James missed the World Cup finals because he left a few days before the start of the tournament for personal reasons.

After a few more appearances, including three qualifying games for the 2010 World Cup , national coach Ricki Herbert James nominated for the Confederations Cup 2009 in South Africa.

In the play-offs for the 2014 World Cup against the Mexican national team , he scored one goal both in the first leg (final score: 1: 5) and in the second leg (2: 4). The team was ultimately unable to qualify for the World Cup after these two defeats.

successes

at club level:

• Finnish league cup winner : 2009
• Finnish football cup winner : 2012

Individually:

• New Zealand International Young Player: 2006

Web links

• Profile on veikkausliiga.com
• Chris James . New Zealand Soccer, archived from the original on March19, 2009; accessed on August 9, 2014(English, original website no longer available). 

• Profile at the New Zealand Association ( Memento from March 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
• Chris James in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ nzherald.co.nz: Soccer: Chris pleased to cross over (6 Aug 2006)
2. ↑ nzherald.co.nz: Soccer: James signs with Finnish champions (Feb. 29, 2008)
3. ↑ Event Report: OFC U-20 Championship New Zealand 2007, p. 23
4. ↑ cbc.ca: Mexico, Portugal winners at U-20 World Cup (July 2, 2007)
5. ↑ cbc.ca: [1]
6. ↑ ultimatenzsoccer.com: International Award Nominees