Tigers FC National Premier League (NPL) Men’s First Grade player, 17-year-old Samson Carr, has signed with the Academy of New South Wales A-League club, Western Sydney Wanderers, for the 2025 season in a hugely exciting career move.
The talented defender joined the Tigers FC NPLM First Grade team as a full back for the 2024 season, under the coaching leadership of Tigers FC Director of Coaching, Ali Rıza Efe.
Canberra local Carr is a Year 12 student at Canberra’s Erindale College, studying as part of the competitive Talented Sports Program – an initiative set up by the ACT Government in 1993 for students looking to achieve excellence in both academic and sporting pursuits.
Tigers FC First Grade coach, Ali Rıza Efe, coached Carr as part of the ACT’s Talent Support Program (TSP) and the U16s Capital Football team at the National Youth Championships, before signing him to Tigers FC for the 2024 NPLM season.
Efe has a strong working relationship with the Western Sydney Wanderers’ Head Coach and wider coaching team, and recently set up an opportunity for a number of young Tigers FC players to train and trial with the club.
Leading up to his A-League Academy selection, Carr was training with Tigers FC at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) on Mondays, before heading to Sydney to train with Western Sydney Wanderers (WSW) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, then travelling back to Canberra for Tigers FC training on Thursdays.
His busy schedule has clearly paid off, with WSW offering him a contract to join them full time starting early-November, after he finishes his current season with Tigers FC. Samson is taking the contract signing all in his stride.
“I’m really excited to be offered this opportunity with the Western Sydney Wanderers A-League Academy. It will be strange leaving my friends and my school… but worth it!” Carr said.
Efe believes Carr’s contract with Western Sydney Wanderers is just the start of great things to come. “I’ve known Samson for almost six years now and he definitely has a bright future ahead of him,” Efe commented.
Arsenal fan Carr hopes the move will lead to further overseas opportunities. “Moving to Sydney is a great next step to where I want to go,” he explained. “My eventual goal is to play in Europe, so any experience which might help make this possible is a dream come true.”
You can see Carr and his Tigers teammates in action in the NPL Elimination Final this Saturday against O’Connor Knights at the Riverside Stadium with kick-off at 7pm.
