Erroll Bennett

Erroll Bennett (7 May 1950 – 2 June 2025) was a Tahitian footballer, who spent his career with A.S. Central Sport and Paris Saint-Germain. Bennett placed fifteenth in a 1999 poll by International Federation of Football History & Statistics to find the Player of the Century for Oceania.

Club career

1963–1983: A.S. Central Sport

Joining the youth team in 1963 and playing for the senior team between 1966 and 1983, Bennett spent most of his career with A.S. Central Sport aside from a short stint with Paris Saint-Germain's reserve team.

Over 17 years, he won fourteen Tahiti Ligue 1 titles and eight Tahiti Cups with the club.

1972: Short stint with Paris Saint-Germain

During his time with Paris Saint-Germain, he played for the club during their first season ever in Ligue 1 (1971–72).

He mainly played for the reserve team between January and June 1972, and he planned to stay with the club but financial troubles forced him to leave PSG as the club was relegated to Division 3, although Henri Patrelle (the then president of PSG) failed to convince Bennett to stay at PSG.

After leaving PSG, Bennett was subsequently in contact with AS Saint-Etienne but he instead rejoined A.S. Central Sport in July 1972.

International career

Bennett was part of the Tahitian national squad for the 1973 Oceania Cup, the first ever Oceania-wide international soccer tournament. Bennett scored three goals in the tournament, and played in the final, which Tahiti lost 2–0 to New Zealand.

He also won the South Pacific Games tournament three times with Tahiti.

Personal life and death

Bennett joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1977 after which he refused to play football on Sundays. Following Bennett's baptism, Napoléon Spitz, the head of Bennett's team, held a meeting in which he said his team would stop Sunday play and all football teams in that division agreed to move games to weeknights.

Bennett was also a police officer in Tahiti. He was the father of Naea Bennett, who also played for the Tahiti national team.

Bennett died on 2 June 2025, at the age of 75.

Career statistics

As of match played 15 September 1983.

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Tahiti	1973	5	3
	1974	3	0
	1975	5	0
	1978	3	0
	1979	5	7
	1980	9	2
	1981	9	3
	1983	5	0
Total		46	15Template:Refn

As of match played 15 September 1983.

Tahiti score listed first, score column indicates score after each Bennett goalTemplate:Refn

List of international goals scored by Erroll Bennett

No.	Date	Venue	Cap	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	17 February 1973	Newmarket Park, Auckland, New Zealand	1	New Caledonia	1–?	2–1	1973 Oceania Cup
2	18 February 1973		2	New Zealand	1–?	1–1
3	21 February 1973		3	New Hebrides	1–0
4	29 August 1979	Buckhurst Park, Suva, Fiji	17	Tonga	?–0	8–0	1979 South Pacific Games
5
6
7	3 September 1979		19	New Hebrides	1–0
8	4 September 1979		20	New Caledonia	?–2	3–2
9
10	7 September 1979		21	Fiji	2–0	3–0
11					3–0
12	25 February 1980	Stade Numa-Daly Magenta, Nouméa, New Caledonia	22	New Zealand	3–1		1980 Oceania Cup
13	1 March 1980		24	Australia	2–?	2–4
15	14 July 1981	Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara, Solomon Islands	37	Fiji	1–0		1981 South Pacific Mini Games
14	15 July 1981		38	New Caledonia	?–0	6–0

Honours

A.S. Central Sport

• Tahiti Ligue 1
  • Champions (14): 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982

• Tahiti Cup:
  • Winners (9): 1966, 1967, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983

Tahiti

• Oceania Cup
  • Runners-up (2): 1973, 1980

• South Pacific Games
  • Champions (3): 1975, 1979, 1983

External links

• Michael Otterson. "Erroll Bennett: Tahitian Soccer Star", Ensign, Oct. 1982.
• Meridian Magazine article with section on Bennett

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