Raphael Lea’i: The future of Solomon Islands and OFC?
By Jim James
Hello everybody and welcome back to the blog. Raphael Lea’i (Not to be confused with Raphael Leao) is an 18-year old who has just scored a hat-trick for the Solomon Islands vs Tahiti in a 3-1 win in only his 2nd senior cap. In this post I’m going to find anything about him I can and will be putting it in this post.
Raphael Lea’i was born on September 9 2003 in Honiara, Solomon Islands. At 12 years old he joined Kossa. He played with them only for a year before being picked up by Marist in 2016. However, 2018 was the year he really took front and center stage, when just around his 15th birthday, made his debut in the Telekom S-League, the top division in Solomon Islands football. Despite his young age he very much impressed, scoring 4 goals in 6 games, despite not being even 15.3 years old.
He also made his debut for the Solomon Islands U17s on the eve of his 15th birthday, against Papua New Guinea U17s in Group A of the U17 OFC Championship, scoring 4 goals in that game, winning it 5-0. He went on to score 8 in the Tournament’s entirety, being the Tournament’s top scorer despite being the youngest, losing the final on Penalties to New Zealand.
Another thing he did was capture hearts in the U16 Futsal World Cup with the Solomon Islands U16, because yes, Futsal is another thing Lea’i does.
These performances inspired a trial invite by Argentine side Godoy Cruz, but was rejected for being underage. Instead he joined Wellington Phoenix for an unknown fee. The only evidence of him being a Wellington Phoenix player is a low definition photograph of him in a Wellington Phoenix kit on google when you search “Raphael Lea’i Wellington Phoenix”.
Despite technically being a Wellington Phoenix player, the transfer was actually a scholarship to Scots College, affiliated with the club. He finished the season as the top scorer for the league his college team was in,, scoring 15. That may not seem like a lot, but for a 15-year old, playing players up to 23 years old regularly, that’s very good.
In the summer of 2019 Lea’i elected to join the Henderson Eels, back home in the Solomon Islands. He played only 7 matches, but scored 24, STILL only being a 15-16 year old. He even scored 11 in a game vs Real Kakamora.
These performances had Melbourne City invite him for a weeklong trial, but he was rejected. Since that year he has scored 45 in 27 games for the Eels.
Today, Raphael Lea’i scored a hat-trick vs Tuvalu in his 2nd senior Solomon Islands cap, one of the youngest to ever do it, and has secured the Solomon Islands a semi-finals spot in the OFC World Cup Qualifying. If they win it, they’ll face 4th place in the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying, either Costa Rica or Panama most likely, and I’ll be one billion percent rooting for him and them. I’m Jim James, until next time!