Winston Reid is best known for scoring West Ham United’s unforgettable winner against Manchester United in the final game played at the Boleyn Ground in May 2016.
Prior to that, Reid was best known for scoring the goal that secured New Zealand’s first-ever point at a FIFA World Cup finals, against Slovakia in South Africa in 2010.
But what some Hammers may not know is that Reid grew up in Denmark, where he played for Viborg FF’s local rivals FC Midtjylland on 92 occasions prior to his switch to east London.
Born in Auckland, Reid moved with his mother and Danish stepfather in the spring of 1999, when he was ten, and settled in Southern Jutland.
A promising footballer, he joined local junior club Sønderborg, before being scouted and recruited by Superliga club Midtjylland (which literally translates as ‘Central Jutland’) at the age of 16 in the summer of 2004.
Playing alongside future Denmark captain Simon Kjær, Reid developed into one of the country’s top prospects, signing his first professional contract and making his senior debut just four months after his 17th birthday.
At 20, Reid scored his first goal for Midtjylland in a UEFA Cup win over Bangor City in July 2008, then helped his team hold Manchester City to a 1-1 aggregate draw in the second round proper. The defender scored past future West Ham teammate Joe Hart in the resulting penalty shootout, but the Danes were eliminated 4-2 from the spot.
Now an established player, Reid made over 60 appearances over the next two seasons and was capped ten times by Denmark at U21 level, before switching his international allegiance to the country of his birth in March 2010.
Three months later, he scored an historic goal in Rustenburg and, following intense interest from clubs across Europe, made his move to east London.
After a forgettable first season that ended in relegation, Reid was an integral part of the West Ham team that secured immediate promotion before establishing the Club back in the Premier League, winning the Hammer of the Year award in 2012/13.
The centre-back remained a central member of the side over the next four-and-a-half seasons, highlighted by that memorable late winner against Manchester United at the Boleyn Ground six years ago.
Sadly, Reid’s West Ham world would fall apart in March 2018, when an unfortunate clash in a Premier League fixture at Swansea City saw him knocked unconscious and twist his knee. Despite undergoing repeated surgery to fix the issue, he would never appear in a competitive fixture for the Club again.
Reid spent time on loan at American Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City in 2020 and EFL Championship side Brentford in 2021, earning praise from the Bees’ Danish manager Thomas Frank and making what could be the final club appearance of his career in the Play-Off final win over Swansea at Wembley.
Now 34, Reid appeared for New Zealand in their 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification play-off defeat in Costa Rica in June, denying him the chance to bookend his international career at this winter’s finals in Qatar.
Living in Dubai with his wife and two children, Reid departed West Ham by mutual consent in September 2021, but he looks back on his time at West Ham with fondness and wishes the Hammers well in tonight’s tie against his old rivals…
Reidy, what are you up to now?
“I’m just spending time with my family and looking into business interests for when my football career comes to an end.”
You played for New Zealand in Costa Rica in June, but just missed out on a place at another World Cup finals, 12 years on from your first?
“It was really tough to take. They scored a scruffy goal early on with one of the very few chances they had, then we battered them but couldn’t score. We had a goal that was initially given, then disallowed on review. Our player got pushed over and their player has fallen over him, but they gave a foul against our player. We also had a couple of penalties not given and a player sent-off after another VAR review. I was disappointed as I really wanted to go to the World Cup.
“We have got a decent team now and play some really good football with some good young players, a couple of whom play in Serie A in Italy (Liberato Cacace of Empoli and Matthew Garbett of Torino), so the next cycle for the World Cup in the USA and Canada in 2026 should be good.”
How about you? Will you be around for that World Cup?
“Ha! We have home and away games with Australia in September, with the first game in Brisbane and the second in Auckland, which I’m really looking forward to, as it’ll be the first time I’ve been home since I visited with West Ham in 2014.
“I went back to play in the World Cup play-off against Peru in Wellington in 2017 but, other than that, I’ve not been home, so it’ll be nice to go back, see family and play at Eden Park. I’m looking forward to it.”
Let’s go back to when you were a boy, coming up to your eleventh birthday, when you moved from New Zealand to Denmark?
“My Mum is from New Zealand and my stepfather is from Denmark and we moved to Southern Jutland. I went to school there, learned Danish and joined the local football club Sønderborg. I moved to Midtjylland when I was 16, debuted at 17 and played fairly regularly from 18-and-a-half onwards.
“I remember we played Man City in the UEFA Cup in 2008, beat them 1-0 at home then conceded right at the end of the second leg and lost on penalties. I scored my pen past Harty – I gave him the eyes and sent him the wrong way!
“I went through the age-groups with Denmark and really enjoyed my time playing both for Midtjylland and the national teams. They taught me so much football knowledge. For a relatively small country, Denmark has always produced good young players, as we’ve seen over the past 15 years or so.”
Speaking of Denmark, you went on loan to Brentford in the spring of 2021, where you played under a Dane and alongside a number of Danish players?
“Brentford is half-Danish! I knew their Co-Director of Football Rasmus Ankersen as he was on the coaching staff at Midtjylland when I was a youngster. I also knew Thomas Frank as he’d coached against me at youth-team level when I was about 14, when he was at a club that was in the same division.
“They had seven or eight Danish players, so I was there speaking Danish to them and English to the other boys, so I had a great time. I was happy to help Brentford get promoted and I’m glad the club is still doing so well.”
When you were at Midtjylland, Viborg were your local rivals at senior level, so what can you tell us about them?
“Viborg is about 45 minutes’ drive from Herning, the city where Midtjylland play, so they were our rivals, as you say. Their stadium is nice. It holds about 11,000. Viborg were an up-and-down club for a few seasons but they came up a couple of years ago and are doing well now. When I was growing up, they were quite a bit club and won the Danish Cup and played in Europe.
“This is a big game for them and their players will see it as a chance to play against a Premier League team and potentially catch the eye, a bit like when players from smaller clubs play against Premier League teams in the FA Cup.”
Finally, do you still keep in touch with your old teammates at West Ham? And what did you make of last season?
“I do, yeah, I keep in touch with some of the boys and the staff and find out what’s been going on. I still follow the results and watch the games on TV over in Dubai.
“I followed the Europa League run and it was a real shame the boys didn’t make it to the final, especially after the way they beat Sevilla and Lyon.
“They’ve just got to keep progressing day by day and keep working hard because there is so much competition in the Premier League these days, with every club adding quality.
“They’ve got some top players though, led by Declan Rice, who always wanted to learn from the seniors when he was coming through, and I know the boys will always give their best for the Club, so I wish them well.”
