Tyler Bindon on Premier League ‘dream', starting at LAFC, Vietnam War veteran grandfather

New York Times

09-05-2025

Tyler Bindon is completely unfazed.
Unfazed by the potential pressure of having two professional athletes as parents. Unfazed by the family moving from New Zealand, the land of his birth, to California when he was 12. Unfazed by immediately establishing himself in the LAFC academy. Unfazed by moving to England aged 17. Unfazed by making his way in English professional football, where he'd never played before, at an age that most of us are just figuring out how to pay a gas bill. Unfazed by the prospect of going from being a trialist at a third-tier club to the Premier League and possibly the Champions League in under two years.
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Unfazed by… well, what else have you got? The impression you get is that you could tell him the world has started spinning in the other direction and he would nod, absorb the information and quietly go about his day.
'That's what everyone says to me,' he says, smiling, when The Athletic suggests he is very easily taking things in his stride.
And there's a lot to take in.
Bindon has been playing for Reading, but he's not a Reading player; Nottingham Forest signed him in January and then immediately loaned the 20-year-old back to the League One club for the rest of the season. To go from the third division of English football to the Premier League would be a pretty big step, but they've all been pretty big steps for him so far.
Bindon was born in Auckland in 2005. His mother is Jenny Bindon, the goalkeeper who was born and raised in the USA but won 77 caps for New Zealand, after moving there when she married Grant Bindon, an international volleyball player she met at Lewis University in Illinois.
He began playing football, volleyball, and really 'any sport I could get my hands on' from an early age, as you might expect from the son of elite athletes. Jenny and Grant once totted up how many sports he played, with varying degrees of seriousness: it was 17, everything from orienteering to hockey to rugby. But football was always the way he was going to go.
'Football was always tangible to him,' Jenny tells The Athletic. 'He went to the Olympics and World Cups, and was around it all the time. He always had a ball at his feet – even when he was playing volleyball, he would kick the ball into a basketball hoop.'
When he was 12, Jenny landed a job as a college coach at UCLA, so the family moved to Los Angeles, where he joined the LAFC youth system. That was a stroke of luck: the initial thought was to try to get him involved at LA Galaxy, primarily because at that stage the first team at neighbours and MLS rivals LAFC didn't exist. But their academy did, and another coach at UCLA spotted him on their training field and invited him for a trial.
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While he started playing football in New Zealand, it was in California where his game started to take shape. He was initially a midfielder, then a right-back, and then, after a growth spurt about five years ago, he moved to central defence. 'Very calm, relaxed, composed, but there to help the team in any circumstances,' he says, when asked to describe his game to anyone who's never seen him play.
He's a ball-playing defender, a legacy of his early positions, but it was also how he was taught at LAFC. 'When you're young, you learn how to play with the ball,' he says. 'In LA, it was very Spanish-orientated, so it was all about using your body with the ball, passing and moving around. I was just learning to enjoy the game.'
He had a few good role models there, not least Giorgio Chiellini, who was in the LAFC first team in the last year Bindon was with their academy. He can't pretend the legendary Italian defender was a mentor, but they spoke a few times. 'He just said to enjoy every minute you can,' says Bindon.
Simple advice, but: 'The simple things get lost. To keep everything simple is one of the hardest things to do. I think I'm very fortunate that I have my parents to always remind me about that. The moment you stop enjoying it… what's the point, right?'
Enjoyment comes up a lot, and it comes from his parents. 'The thing for us was about keeping the game fun,' Grant says. 'You often hear about the car ride home where the parents really get on the kids, but we just made sure it was never about what he did wrong, it was just about 'did you have fun today?''
After six years in Los Angeles, in the summer of 2023 the Bindons were on the move again for work, this time to England. Tyler came with them, just before his 18th birthday, without a club arranged beforehand, although there had some interest from English clubs while the Bindons were in California, so it wasn't a complete shot in the dark. He had trials at Reading, who snapped him up for their under-21s team initially, but by August he was with the seniors, made his full debut in the early weeks of the season and has pretty much been a regular ever since.
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It hasn't been easy. The saga over Dai Yongge's ownership rumbles on, with a takeover agreed in principle by Rob Couhig last week. But an end has been in sight several times over the past couple of years, in which time the very existence of the club has been in doubt.
Bindon has been one of Reading's best players as they have performed minor miracles, considering the parlous ownership situation, to be in with a shout of promotion to the Championship going into their regular-season finale last weekend. To go from a trialist with no pedigree in English football to first-team regular to key player is impressive enough. But to be good enough to attract interest from Forest, particularly considering the season they are having, is doubly so.
And to add to all this, he's established himself as a key part of the New Zealand team that recently qualified for the 2026 World Cup being hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. He has dual citizenship, so was eligible to play for the U.S. and indeed did play for them at under-19s level. He's proud of his American background, the time he spent there, and especially his grandfather Bill, who is a Vietnam veteran who was awarded two Purple Hearts and a collection of other medals for his service.
'He's amazing. I love him to bits. He just came to England a couple of months ago. I don't talk to him much about Vietnam, but whenever he does tell stories I always listen.'
Bill is Jenny's father. 'He was a helicopter gunner,' she says. 'He's one of our heroes, and I think Tyler always has that connection back to America and he's very proud of his grandfather.'
But in terms of international football, for him it was always going to be New Zealand. 'My home is there, my heart's there — it wasn't really a choice,' he says.
There, he's team-mates with another couple of Forest players: Chris Wood ('He's always been there for me,') and Marko Stamenic, who is on loan at Greek sister club Olympiacos. 'It's been amazing. I've loved every minute. The guys are awesome; it's a real privilege to wear the fern on my chest.'
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The move to Forest came about as these things often do: gradually, then suddenly. There had been murmurings of interest throughout January, but then right at the end of the winter transfer window, things moved very quickly. There was some back and forth about whether he would go straight to Forest or stay with Reading for the rest of the season: the latter course was settled on as the best solution for everyone.
Tyler Bindon with the acrobatics 🤸@ReadingFC pic.twitter.com/RmjBYk80PF
— Sky Bet League One (@SkyBetLeagueOne) December 29, 2024
It's been a whirlwind, but you wouldn't think it from talking to Bindon. Without much sign of arrogance, he seems to act as if this is all perfectly normal; that of course he could climb the ladder this quickly, of course he could be a Premier League player so soon.
On a couple of occasions during our interview at Reading's training ground, The Athletic mentions the whirlwind, how quickly all of this has happened, how difficult many people would find it, and it's as if all of that has only just occurred to Bindon. 'It is very quick,' he says, in a 'Yeah, I suppose it is…' sort of way.
'He's just the kind of guy who rolls with whatever's happening,' says Jenny. 'As long as there are good people, and the environment is good, he just gets on with it.'
'The kid is unbelievable,' Reading manager Noel Hunt told the media recently. 'He doesn't know how good he is or how good he is going to be. He is the loveliest boy, and his character is so delightful to work with.'
So, does he know how good he is? There's a pause, a smile, a slight shrug. 'Probably not. I just play to play. I don't really worry about that.'
If you speak to people about Bindon, one thing that most will say is that he is always asking questions, always absorbing information, taking things from all sorts of sources and applying it to his game.
Congratulations to Tyler Bindon who's been nominated for EFL League One Young Player of The Season for his impressive season with @ReadingFC 👏🎖 pic.twitter.com/WIbu6JAx76
— New Zealand Football 🇳🇿 (@NZ_Football) April 17, 2025
'I just like to know about random things,' he says. 'It's interesting to hear people's stories, details about where they've come from. The more you learn, the better you become. It's just how I've always been.
'I want to learn as much as I can about everything. The moment you stop is the moment things pass you by. It's about learning and adapting. Whoever I speak to will always have a different perspective. It's interesting to see what everyone thinks about what you're doing wrong, what you're doing right.'
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Even from those early days, playing volleyball? 'I think subconsciously, yes,' he says, when asked if he has applied anything from that to football. 'You probably take small things like spatial awareness on the court, hand-eye coordination, timing of jumps, that sort of thing.'
No decision has been taken about where he will be next season. He'll report to Forest for pre-season training, and they will take a view on whether he stays with the first team, or goes out on loan. But it's not out of the question he could be playing in the Premier League next season, or even in the Champions League, should Forest qualify.
'We'll have to wait and see. Playing in the Premier League is what everyone dreams of. There's no guarantee I'll be in the squad so I just have to appreciate every opportunity.'
And if Forest do keep him around for the big occasions… well, you probably know how Tyler Bindon would react.