Former New Zealand footballer, Cameron Knowles may not be a household name but is journey is one of challenge and adaptation. From the bumpy fields of Auckland’s North Shore to the stadiums of MLS and defending against the likes of David Beckham and Landon Donovan, Cameron was somewhat of a late bloomer – working hard to overcome his lack of technical development through persistence, effort and intelligence.
With four years of college football at the University of Akron (including two MAC Conference Championships) and a 7-year professional career that began at Real Salt Lake in 2005, Cameron experienced many ups and downs in his time as a player.
After two seasons in Salt Lake, he was cut from the roster. However, the Portland Timbers (then in USL Division 1) came calling and Cameron played with the team for four seasons between 2007 and 2010. A brief stint at Montreal Impact in 2011 was the last stop in Cameron’s professional playing journey after a serious leg injury brought the curtain down on a career defined by strong work ethic and sacrifice. Now an Assistant Coach at the Portland Timbers, Cameron gives The Player Development Project insight into his development and the journey that took him from grass roots in New Zealand to the big cities of the USA.
PDP: Why did you start playing?
CK: My brother played at our local school and I just tagged along with him. From there I got involved with junior soccer at Glenfield Rovers and once I was in it, never fell out of it, I played as much as I could.
Knowles (right) during his season with Montreal Impact. Photo: Montreal Impact/Pepe
PDP: Going back to your earliest memories, where were you playing most of your football?
CK: Most of my football was organised. There were always those primary school games at lunchtime where we would muck around and it would be all in, 20 versus 20. However, when it came to organised football, the main memory is bumpy, waterlogged fields, either at Glenfield Rovers or all around the North Shore. Glenfield did an excellent job of keeping the same people involved year after year. I actually had the same coach for a very long time, a guy called Kel Munro. We went through the same age groups with basically the same squad. We stayed together from the age of 8, right through to 17, which made things very stable and kind of comfortable.
PDP: Do you think staying with those players and that team for so long is quite unique?
CK: Yeah, I think so. Normally with youth soccer in those days it was a case of someone’s Dad having a turn at volunteering to coach the team, then swapping with someone else, but we had the same coach and the same assistant coach for a long, long time. It was a really stable group of parents too, including one parent who refereed every game. The plan was really consistent from year to year.
PDP: How would you compare playing in the club environment to playing in representative teams?
CK: It was really different, but when you were with the reps it was a full-time environment, so despite not being as connected to the whole team, you would still get one or two players who you were close with. They’re friendships I still have today. The current Loyola University coach is a friend of mine from those days and I saw him only recently in Portland and we laughed about how we both ended up in the USA after growing up on the North Shore of Auckland and playing together as 13 or 14-year-olds.
…after I arrived in the USA… I had to compete against better players. I had to be smart. I worked hard, tried to be a leader.
Knowles (left) for the Portland Timbers.
Photo: oregonianphoto
PDP: Did you have any real role models growing up?
CK: Most of my role models were within my club – guys who were a couple of years older than me, or first-team players when I made the reserve team. I also remember being a ball boy and thinking that being in that first team was the ‘highest level’. When I got older and learned more about the All Whites [New Zealand national team] of 1982 who made it to the World Cup in Spain, I understood more about Wynton Rufer [Werder Bremen], a Kiwi who had gone overseas and had been incredibly successful. I realised that he and other New Zealand footballers, were guys I could look up to. Shortly after that realisation, I played under him for New Zealand.
PDP: How would you describe your playing style?
CK: Aggressive! To be honest, I didn’t feel I had a lot of technical quality, especially after I arrived in the USA when I had to compete against better players. I had to be smart. I worked hard, was very fit and tried to be a leader.
PDP: If you could go back and change something in your player development, what would it be?
CK: I would spend far more time on the ball having constant contact. I found myself in a position where at 18 or 19 years old I felt technically limited and this was a massive anchor that weighed me down. Early on, technical development is key. Tactical understanding is something that can be developed over time, with age appropriate progressions, but the focus for young players should be primarily technical.
PDP: What kind of environments do you believe are best for technical development?
CK: For me, a lot of good practice comes when it is self-driven. If it’s too coach-led then you might get better, but players who want to go to the park on their own and practice are the ones who will get better. I think it’s a case of introducing certain things to players in a positive environment, free from any fear of failure, to give them an idea of what they can do on their own. When I’ve coached young kids who might train twice a week, I always tell them most of their development is going to take place away from the training field. If you want to get better as a player, there is so much more you have to do on your own. The players who excel are the ones who work for hours a day alone or set their own goals to get to the next level or master a new skill.
PDP: How did you end up making the move across the world to the USA and what were the biggest challenges of making that choice?
CK: The hardest part was making the decision. I was 18 years old and I moved to a place I’d never been to. It came about after the U17 World Cup was hosted in New Zealand. After the tournament, my coach, Kevin Fallon, suggested the USA to me. My parents wanted me to get a good education and I liked the idea of leaving New Zealand for a new challenge.
Arriving in the USA was hard. I missed my connection at LAX and after getting to Akron in the height of a hot, humid summer, I arrived at my new house. It was in terrible shape. The ceiling was bowed, sagging and dripping due to a leak in the upstairs shower! I spent the first night there and then the ceiling collapsed so I had to get out. After paying for a one-year lease up front I had to navigate my way out of that, but then football started.
For me, a lot of good practice comes when it is self-driven. If it’s too coach-led then you might get better, but players who want to go to the park on their own and practice are the ones who will get better.
I absolutely loved the full-time pre- season environment. It was exhausting, challenging and helped me grow as
a person. I was away from my family, had no phone and had to find a way to get settled and prove myself on the football pitch.
Knowles, now Assistant Coach at Portland Timbers. Photo: Portland Timbers/Craig Mitchelldyer
The community around the University was unbelievably good, so accommodating and helpful. The cultural assimilation was challenging, few people could point out New Zealand on a map, some people couldn’t understand my accent, and I had never been to the US before, but after the initial six months that personal development reflected in my playing development. The coach was also an extremely calming influence and channeled my aggression as a player. I grew up and figured things out for myself and that enhanced my maturity as a player.
PDP: How did you find the transition from playing and training environments in New Zealand, to the world-class facilities of the US?
CK: My expectations were nil. For me, it was staggering; when I came to the USA, I’d never played in a stadium. When I told people in Akron that Ohio State’s stadium (which seats 110,000 people) is bigger than anything New Zealand has by a mile, they don’t believe it. In New Zealand at the highest level, our locker rooms were very basic with just a few hooks on the wall, and a couple of benches. In the USA, there are couches, flat screen
TVs and players were given boots! It was a huge change. To have a training field and a match field was amazing. We are so spoilt for facilities in the USA and I am constantly reminding myself how fortunate we are, right from youth clubs through to professional football.
In college, everyone was so welcoming, but when you’re taking jobs off other people it becomes a lot more ruthless.
PDP: Tell us about the transition from the college game to the professional game and how you view the professional game as a player?
CK: The transition going into MLS was so different because it’s so cutthroat. In college, everyone was so welcoming, but when you’re taking jobs off other people it becomes a lot more ruthless. I remember my first year with the team at Real Salt Lake, and a guy I played with was talking about moving to the city, renovating his house, 28 years old, and two weeks later he was cut. It was quite striking seeing how tough it was when you grow up with this perception of professional athletes in the USA living this charmed life, but in MLS it was different. Learning to live frugally through college helped me deal with that a lot, but looking at the league now the difference is massive, and for the better. Real Salt Lake did a great job with us, they put us in apartments but I had no stuff, one couch and a bed. There was so much space in my apartment I used to practice chipping golf balls!
Knowles (left) with fellow Timbers coaching staff, Sean McAuley (centre) and Mike Toshack (right). Photo: Portland Timbers/Craig Mitchelldyer
PDP: What happened when you were cut from Real Salt Lake and dropped down a division?
CK: In my first year I played four MLS games at Real Salt Lake, but as time went on my first-team playing time dropped to virtually nil. In my second year it was limited to cup games and exhibition games. I was always realistic that after the second year I was probably not going to get offered another contract. I needed to get my confidence back and just play. When you spend that long not getting picked, you start thinking, ‘am I still half decent at this or have I got it all wrong?’ Gavin Wilkinson was the Head Coach at the time at Portland Timbers and he signed me. I’ve been here pretty much ever since.
Cover Image:
Cameron Knowles. Photo: Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers
