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.^[1] He placed fifteenth in a 1999 poll by International Federation of Football History & Statistics to find the Player of the Century for Oceania.^[4]

Erroll Bennett

Personal information
Date of birth	(1950-05-07)7 May 1950
Place of birth	Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
Date of death	2 June 2025(2025-06-02) (aged 75)
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
1963–1966[1]	A.S. Central Sport
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1966–1972	A.S. Central Sport
1972	Paris Saint-Germain[2]	0	(0)
1972	Paris Saint-Germain Reserves[2]
1972–1983	A.S. Central Sport
International career
1973–1983	Tahiti	46[3]	(15+[nb 1])
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

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.^[2]

Over 17 years, he won fourteen Tahiti Ligue 1 titles and eight Tahiti Cups with the club.^[5]

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).^[6]

He mainly played for the reserve team between January and June 1972,^[2] 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.^[7]

After leaving PSG, Bennett was subsequently in contact with AS Saint-Etienne but he instead rejoined A.S. Central Sport in July 1972.^[1]

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.^[8]

He also won the South Pacific Games tournament three times with Tahiti.^[9]

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.^[9]

Bennett died on 2 June 2025, at the age of 75.^[10]

Career statistics

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	15[nb 1]

Tahiti score listed first, score column indicates score after each Bennett goal^{[nb 1]}

List of international goals scored by Erroll Bennett

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

Honours

A.S. Central Sport

• Tahiti Ligue 1 (14): 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982
• Tahiti Cup (9): 1966, 1967, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983

Tahiti

• Oceania Cup runner-up: 1973, 1980
• South Pacific Games: 1975, 1979, 1983

Notes

1. It is possible that Bennett scored more than 15 goals for Tahiti because many of Tahiti's scorers from the 20th century are unknown.