WELCOME FROM GM DAVID DOME Nau mai, haere mai and welcome to Leichhardt Oval for the men’s fourth Isuzu UTE A-League match in 11 days. The team picked up seven points in a week to kick start their ‘February Football Frenzy’ and are now knocking on the door of the top six. It was great to see Gael Sandoval score his second goal for the club at the weekend and while David Ball is still yet to find the back of the net this season, he is in fantastic form setting them up for his team-mates. This is the first of two matches this week that the men are playing at Leichhardt and we hope more of our Sydney-based fans will be able to see the team in action as they endeavour to continue their unbeaten run.
It’s also handy for Ufuk and the boys as the famous rugby league ground in Sydney’s inner-west is less than a half hour bus journey from their base on the lower north shore. It is enormously challenging for the team being forced to live away from Wellington, but they get on with the job and never complain. The players and management are tremendous role models for the club. They have made themselves home in Chatswood and are looked after well by Football NSW at Valentine Sports Park, where they have top quality training facilities. This wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the support of our commercial partners on both sides of the Tasman. Spark, Oppo, Chemist Warehouse, ELMO and Gazley-Skoda are the
men’s biggest supporters and the team also gets great local assistance from Fraternity Club, BaiMed and Southern Classic Cars. Nothing happens on the pitch without the support of these great businesses. This evening’s opponents Brisbane Roar are coming off a good win over Macarthur FC on Sunday and have the chance to leapfrog us on the ladder. It’s our first meeting with the Roar this season with the match originally scheduled to be played six weeks ago. I think we’ve improved greatly as a team in the past month and a half and I’m looking forward to another impressive showing tonight. COYN!
PHOTOGRAPHY: Speed Media, Getty Images PRINTING: TBD Design www.tbd.co.nz COPYRIGHT: Reproduction in whole or in part by any means is prohibited. DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher. Although all material is checked for accuracy, no liability is assumed by the publisher for any loss due to material in this magazine. All details are correct as at time of print.
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YOUR 2021/22 WELLINGTON PHOENIX SQUAD #3
DEF
#4
MID
#8
GAEL SANDOVAL
# 11
JAUSHUA SOTIRIO
MID
# 18
FWD
BEN WAINE
#6
#9
FWD
# 14
# 10
# 16
ALEX RUFER (CAPTAIN)
DEF
SAM SUTTON
MID
RENO PISCOPO
MID
# 19
DEF
TIM PAYNE
DAVID BALL
NICHOLAS PENNINGTON
DEF
CALLAN ELLIOT
MID
# 13
DEF
JAMES McGARRY
BEN OLD
FWD
# 17
#5
SCOTT WOOTTON
MATTHEW BOZINOVSKI
#7
DEF
DEF
LOUIS FENTON
# 20
GK
OLI SAIL
YOUR 2021/22 WELLINGTON PHOENIX SQUAD # 21
DEF
# 23
MID
JOSH LAWS
# 33
CLAYTON LEWIS
DEF
# 34
FINN SURMAN
# 88
# 31
DEF
# 32
KURTIS MOGG
MID
# 40
JACKSON MANUEL
FWD
GEORGE OTT
GK
# 43
ALEX PAULSEN
FWD
OSKAR VAN HATTUM
FWD
GARY HOOPER
GK
13 Henry Hore
FWD
14 Eli Adams
MID
15 Jesse Daley
MID
1
Macklin Freke
GK
16 Josh Brindell-South
DEF
2
Scott Neville
DEF
19 Jack Hingert
DEF
3
Corey Brown
DEF
21 Nicholas Olsen
FWD
4
Anton Milinaric
DEF
22 Alex Parsons
FWD
5
Tom Aldred (captain)
DEF
23 Juan Lescano
FWD
7
Rahmat Akbari
MID
26 James O’Shea
MID
8
Matti Steinmann
MID
27 Kai Trewin
DEF
9
Luke Ivanovic
FWD
29 Cyrus Dehmie
FWD
10 Nikola Mileusnic
FWD
35 Louis Zabala
MID
Jez Lofthouse
FWD
Coach: Warren Moon
11
COACH UFUK TALAY
12 Jordan Holmes
FEATURE:
YOUNG FORWARD REALISING HIS BOYHOOD DREAM WITH THE PHOENIX Oskar van Hattum grew up supporting the Wellington Phoenix and now he has committed his long-term future to the club.
The 19-year-old forward has agreed to an upgraded scholarship contract with the Phoenix for the remainder of the 2021/22 Isuzu UTE A-League season and has signed to the club for the following three years. Growing up in New Plymouth van Hattum “hardly missed a Phoenix game” on TV and travelled down to Wellington with his dad for the occasional match.
“I’ve been training and working hard for just over five years now and I don’t think I would be anywhere near the first team, near the agegroup national teams without the opportunity to come to the academy. “I’m really grateful for what the academy’s done for me. I left when I was pretty young so I had to grow up away from home.
“I’m quite grateful for my dad forcing me to come down here because like I said I’d be nowhere near a professional contract without that.”
He was called into the Phoenix first team for Ufuk Talay’s first match in charge in 2019, but the then 17-year-old didn’t take the field in the FFA Cup match against the Brisbane Strikers. Van Hattum would have to wait another 26 months before he would take the field for the Nix. A broken foot shortly after returning from the U-17 FIFA World Cup in Brazil halted his progress, but he made 11 appearances for the Phoenix reserves in the 2020/21 national league, scoring two goals and found
“To finally be amongst the team and playing with some of the players I was watching when I was 11, 12, 13 it’s a dream come true actually. “It’s incredible. I’m really enjoying it. “I remember watching Louis Fenton playing back then. To be his teammate now is pretty surreal to be honest.” Van Hattum left New Plymouth as a 14-year-old in 2017 to join the Phoenix academy in Wellington.
GETTY IMAGES
GETTY IMAGES
the back of the net six times in 16 appearances for Lower Hutt City in the 2021 Central League. Team-mates Ben Old, Alex Paulsen, Kurtis Mogg and George Ott were all rewarded with Phoenix contracts, but van Hattum had to wait for his opportunity. It came in late November when he was asked to join the squad in Sydney, along with fellow academy players Finn Surman and Jackson Manuel. “I owe it all to my sister because she was the one who really made me make the decision to come over here. She was the one who supported me the most and believed that I could do it.” Oskar van Hattum went on to make his Phoenix debut in early December, starting the FFA Cup round of 32 match against Western United.
He also played half an hour against Avondale FC in the following round before going on to make five appearances off the bench in the A-League. “I’ve been given an opportunity and I feel like I’ve taken it. I’ve always known that I could do it, I just needed the opportunity to show people that I could do it.” But Van Hattum was unsure if he had done enough to earn his first professional contract. “I think it was always the goal. When I came over I didn’t expect to be signed this early. There was a bit of me that just thought I’d have to come over here for the season and then go back and play Central League with the academy. “So it is a bit of a shock, but also I feel like I’ve deserved it for a while and just needed that chance to prove that I have the capabilities.
“I feel like it was maybe a year or two overdue but we got there in the end.” Head coach Ufuk Talay has been impressed with how van Hattum has progressed since he first laid eyes on him in 2019. “He’s grown in stature, he’s grown in maturity,” Talay said. “He’s developed coming through the academy playing with men in the competition back in New Zealand and now he’s had the opportunity to be with us fulltime, which has helped him progress even quicker. “Oskar can play multiple positions across the front line and he’s got some really great attributes that we want to see in the future at Wellington Phoenix.”
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THE PHOENIX WISHES TO THANK THE FOLLOWING BUSINESSES & ORGANISATIONS FOR THEIR SUPPORT THIS 2021/22 SEASON: P R I N C I P A L
P R E M I U M
C O R P O R A T E