Darren Bazeley is about to reach a coaching milestone no other men’s national team manager has matched. When New Zealand opens its World Cup in Group G against Iran on June 15 in Los Angeles, the 53-year-old will become the only coach to have taken charge at the men’s Under-17 World Cup, Under-20 World Cup, an Olympics and a World Cup finals.

That is why his name is being searched now, even as Bazeley insists the moment belongs to the players. “It’s amazing… but I haven’t got there yet,” he said, adding that it was “not about me” and that the team’s job was to make sure the squad enjoys the occasion and is in the best place to perform.

For New Zealand, the game against Iran is the start of a campaign that has been years in the making for the coach who grew up in English football and built his life on the other side of the world. Bazeley played as a full-back for Watford, Wolves and Walsall in the second tier, then moved to New Zealand in 2005 with his wife and two daughters to join New Zealand Knights in the A-League. He later became a New Zealand citizen, retired at 35 and moved straight into coaching locally.

From there, he worked through New Zealand’s age-group and federation programmes, helped with under-17 teams and stayed involved in the country’s development pathways before stepping into senior international work. He began assisting Anthony Hudson in 2015, followed him to Colorado Rapids at the end of 2017, then spent three years with Danny Hay from 2019 before taking charge of the senior side in 2023.

Bazeley has described that route as “an amazing journey looking back,” though he has never sounded sentimental about leaving playing behind. He said he did not really miss it because there was “too much running,” and joked after retiring that he probably needed to get a job. Coaching, he said, was the way to stay in football after a career that never quite gave him enough reason to step away from it.

The one period that pulled at him most was the time in Colorado, which he said felt different but familiar. He called Colorado Rapids a good league and said the facilities were excellent, but also said it reminded him of playing professional club football. Even then, the job came with sacrifice: his family remained in New Zealand while he was in the United States, including his youngest daughter, who had just started university.

That is the contradiction at the heart of the story. Bazeley is on the verge of a rare place in the men’s game, yet he keeps steering the conversation back to the squad and the World Cup opener. The milestone will become official only when New Zealand faces Iran in Los Angeles, and that match is now the point where his long route from England, through New Zealand’s coaching pathways and into the national team, becomes part of football history.