Kilifi Uele

Kilifi Uele
Personal information
Full name Kilifi Soli Uele[1]
Date of birth (1974-11-14) 14 November 1974
Place of birth Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Position Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Tonga Women (manager)
Youth career
Vaolongolongo
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1993–2004 Vaolongolongo
2005–2009 Ma'ufanga
2010–2013 SC Lotoha'apai
2013–2022 Veitongo
International career‡
1994–2017 Tonga 29 (3)
Managerial career
20??–2006 Tonga Women U19
2007–2011 Tonga Women
2023– Tonga Women
2024–2025 Tonga
* Club domestic league appearances and goals
‡ National team caps and goals as of 14 December 2017

Kilifi Soli Uele (born 14 November 1974)[2] is a Tongan former footballer and manager who is the manager of the Tonga women's national football team.

According to the RSSSF, Uele is the second-oldest goalscorer in the history of international football.[3]

Club career

Vaolongolongo

In 1993, at the age of seventeen, Kilifi Uele debuted for Vaolongolongo.[4] He left the club in December 2004.[5]

Ma'ufanga

He then joined Ma'ufanga in January 2005 ahead of the 2005 season.[6] He left the club in 2009 to join SC Lotoha'apai.[6]

Sc Lotoha'apai

With SC Lotoha'apai, Uele won three Tonga Major League titles in a row (2010–11, 2011–12, 2013),[7] including scoring the winning goal during the 2–1 victory against Marist during the 2011 final on 9 April.[8]

He made his debut in the OFC Champions League on 1 May 2012 during the 3–3 draw against Tupapa Maraerenga, and he scored his first goal in the competition during the 2–1 victory against Kiwi on 5 May 2012.[9]

Veitongo

After six months without a club, Uele joined Veitongo in January 2014.[5] He won six Tonga Major League titles with the club ( 2015,[10] 2016,[11] 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022).[7][12]

After a gap between 2017 and January 2020, the 45-year-old was still playing for Veitongo at the qualifying stage of the 2020 OFC Champions League, becoming one of the few footballers to have played in four different decades (from the 1990s until the 2020s).[4]

He then retired from football at the age of 47 on 1 June 2022.

International career

Uele made his debut for Tonga on 24 November 1994 during the 1–0 loss against Tahiti at the 1994 Polynesia Cup, with his team winning second place at the tournament.[13] By the turn of the century, he was already Tonga's captain, leading his side against an all-star Australia side in 2001, which ended in a resounding 22–0 defeat, which was forgotten just a few days later thanks to American Samoa's 31–0 loss to the same opponent.[4] He scored his first goal for Tonga on 12 March 2002 during the 7–2 victory against American Samoa during 2002 OFC Nations Cup qualification.[14]

Uele went on to score two more international goals, including one against New Caledonia on 9 December 2017, becoming, at the age of 43 years and 25 days, the second-oldest international goalscorer in world football, only behind Keithroy Cornelius, who had scored for Virgin Islands in 2011, at the age of 43 years and 196 days.[3] This goal also makes him the oldest international goalscorer in the OFC.[15]

Uele also plays beach soccer internationally, and was part of the Tongan team making its debut at the 2019 OFC Beach Soccer Nations Cup.[16]

Managerial career

Uele is the Technical Director of the Tonga Football Association, a post he has held since 2005.[4]

Uele coached his country's women's team to win a silver medal at the 2007 OFC Women's Championship. Uele was also the head coach of his country's U-19 women's team when they took runner-up in the OFC U-19 Women's Championship in 2006, losing 6–0 to New Zealand in the finals. Before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Uele helped run a new project to promote women's football in the more remote islands of Tonga. Later in 2020, Uele said his main focus was on the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.[4][16][17][18]

He became Tonga Women manager again in 2023 and he was also the manager of Tonga between 2024 and 2025.[5]

Career statistics

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year[6]
National team Year Apps Goals
Tonga 1994[13] 3 0
1995 0 0
1996 2 0
1997 2 0
1998 0 0
1999 0 0
2000 0 0
2001 4 0
2002 2 1
2003 4 1
2004 4 0
2005 0 0
2006 0 0
2007 0 0
2008 0 0
2009 1 0
2010 0 0
2011 0 0
2012 0 0
2013 0 0
2014 0 0
2015 2 0
2016 0 0
2017 5 1
Total 29 3
Scores and results list Tonga's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Uele goal.[6]
List of international goals scored by Kilifi Uele
No. Date Venue Cap Opponent Score Result Competition
1 12 March 2002 National Soccer Stadium, Apia, Samoa 12  American Samoa 4–1 4–2 2002 OFC Nations Cup qualification
2 5 July 2003 Vodafone Ratu Cakobau Park, Nausori, Fiji 16  Micronesia 7–0 7–0 2003 South Pacific Games
3 9 December 2017 Port Vila Municipal Stadium, Port Vila, Vanuatu 27  New Caledonia 2–3 2–4 2017 Pacific Mini Games

Honours

As a player

SC Lotoha'apai

Veitongo

Tonga

As a manager

Tonga Women

References

  1. ^ "Kilifi Uele". besoccer. Retrieved 25 November 2025.
  2. ^ "Kilifi UELE". FIFA. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Oldest and Youngest Players and Goal-scorers in International Football". RSSSF. 27 August 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Kilifi Uele, the grand maestro of Pacific football". FIFA. Archived from the original on 2022-06-14. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  5. ^ a b c "Kilifi Uele". worldfootball.net.
  6. ^ a b c d "Uele, Kilifi". National Football Teams. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  7. ^ a b Tonga – List of Champions Archived February 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine at RSSSF.com
  8. ^ Tonga 2010–11 at RSSSF
  9. ^ "2013 O-League Preliminary Competition Summary" (PDF). Oceania Football Confederation. May 8, 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-27. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
  10. ^ "OFC Champions League draw reveals all". Oceania Football Confederation. November 16, 2015.
  11. ^ "Veitongo defends title". Oceania Football Confederation. August 30, 2016.
  12. ^ "Global Club Football Report 2017" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 29 June 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2018. None of the top-tier domestic competitions in Oceania is fully professional.
  13. ^ a b Morrison, Neil. "Polynesian Cup 1994". RSSSF. Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  14. ^ "Tonga vs. American Samoa 2002-03-12". National Football Teams.
  15. ^ "Oldest national team scorers". www.iffhs.com. 28 December 2024. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
  16. ^ a b "Tonga's football maestro". Archived from the original on 2024-02-22. Retrieved 2022-06-14.
  17. ^ "Football comes to Vava'u". 3 March 2015. Archived from the original on 12 April 2016.
  18. ^ "Hybrid FIFA course furthers Futsal, Beach Soccer in Tonga". FIFA. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
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