The Wellington Phoenix is New Zealand’s only professional football club and completes in the A-League. The Wellington Phoenix Academy is our youth development system that provides pathways into professional football through our A-League Men’s (ALM) & A-League Women’s (ALW) teams.
The Wellington Phoenix is committed to the development of talented young footballers from around New Zealand. We offer a proven youth development programme and pathway that brings together football, personal development and education. This is done in an inspirational and creative environment.
The Academy started in 2013 with a Football School of Excellence Programme (FSE). Over the previous years, the Academy has produced a number of professional players for the club’s 1st Team. Notable graduates include: Louis Fenton, Logan Rogerson, James McGarry, Sarpreet Singh, Liberato Cacace, Ben Waine, Sam Sutton, Alex Paulsen and Ben Old.
There have also been successful graduates who are now operating at professional teams overseas, these include; Joe Bell (Norway), Calvin Harris (America) and Eugenio Pizzuto (France).
The Academy is based at Ricoh Centre, Fraser Park, Lower Hutt, Wellington. To be part of the full-time Academy programme players must be based in Wellington.
Our programme focuses on providing the highest quality of coaching, with the best sports science, medical, education, and well-being support. Being the only professional football club in New Zealand creates a unique landscape within the local game. It isn’t possible to play all the other A-League Academy teams in a weekly competition so our Academy teams are invited by New Zealand Football to play in regional and national competitions in the Capital Football region.
Capital Football runs a Capital Development League (CDL) for clubs with Talent Development Programmes (TDP’s). The Phoenix Academy teams in these competitions play at least one grade up. For our older players they play in senior competitions, our Academy teams are all age-restricted (e.g.U20) but play against club 1st teams. Our Reserve Team plays in the new NZF National League System (NLS) Tier 1 which includes the Central League & National League Playoffs. This combination of youth football and senior competitions at a young age builds unique player profiles compared to Academies overseas.
