Greg Draper may not be a household name in his childhood home of New Zealand but the striker is certainly a local legend in Oswestry, England, and Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain, Wales where he plays for local Cymru Premier club The New Saints F.C.
Before he became TNS’ all-time top goalscorer and helped lead them to a record eight successive league titles between 2012 and 2019, Draper was just another kid with dreams of playing professional cricket.
Draper was born in Chard in Somerset, England before moving to Christchurch, New Zealand with his parents when he was 12. At the time he played both cricket and football before making the move to full-time football as he got older.
Draper got his shot at competitive football with Canterbury United where he scored 4 times in 14 appearances before signing with the Wellington Phoenix in 2007 ahead of their inaugural season as New Zealand’s only full-time professional football side.
At the time, the young forward looked to be one of New Zealand’s next big stars and was named in the New Zealand U17 squad before playing 5 games for the New Zealand U20 team that competed in the 2007 World Cup in Canada.
Draper also had one appearance for the full men’s national team, debuting (and ending) his international career in New Zealand’s 2-0 win over Fiji in 2008.
However, the Phoenix didn’t seem to be the best place for Draper, and after two seasons with the club and only two appearances, he transferred to the Australian semi-professional side the Melbourne Knights where he bagged 8 goals in 20 games in the 2009 season.
One season back in New Zealand from 2009 to 2010 with Team Wellington saw Draper net 10 goals in 16 games followed by a brief stint at non-league side Basingstoke Town in 2010 to 2011 where he scored 15 in 28 games.
Then in June 2011, Draper joined The New Saints, the only professional club in the Welsh Premier League at the time.
Draper’s debut came in a Europa League qualifying round match and from there the goal-scoring ramped up. The Kiwi was awarded Welsh Premier League player of the month in February 2012 as well as TNS’ player of the season in the same year.
In his 10 years with TNS, Draper has gone on to score 163 goals from 252 games including 22 goals in the 2017 to 2018 season and 27 goals in the 2018 to 2019 season which also earned him successive golden boot trophies.
Draper’s 163 goals for TNS, also helped him blow past Michael Wilde’s previous 153 goal record which had been held since 1959. He did this after bagging his third of five goals in a 10-0 win against Flint Town in 2020.
Draper’s goal-scoring prowess also saw him profiled by the BBC in 2019 for having a better strike rate than Lionel Messi – one goal every 38 minutes.
While Kiwis won’t be able to watch Draper as he looks to build on his goal tally in the 2021 to 2022 season, they will be able to bet on Draper’s TNS side with betting sites like bet365 which, according to My Betting Sites NZ, offer the widest range of football markets of any New Zealand bookie.
