Ben Waine's Journey to the World Cup: From Fringes to Stardom

Ben Waine’s road to the World Cup did not begin with a roar. It started in silence, out of the Port Vale squad, watching weekends drift by without his name on the teamsheet.

“It has been a tough season. I'm not going to lie,” he told Sky Sports. For a stretch, he was nowhere near the pitch. No minutes. No matchday buzz. Just the sting of being left out. “It sucked in the moment,” he admitted, but with distance he calls it “probably one of the best things to happen to me.”

Left alone with his doubts, he went to work.

From the fringes to Sunderland

Port Vale’s season ended in relegation, but Waine’s year twisted in a different direction. The 25-year-old New Zealand forward clawed his way back to relevance, and in March he produced the kind of moment players cling to when the table tells an ugly story.

Against Sunderland, in a raucous FA Cup tie, he scored the winner.

“It made a tough season a little bit more bearable,” he said. The goal was not an accident. It was the visible tip of hours and hours spent in the shadows with individual coach Simon Ireland.

“Literally, every day we would work on one or two types of finish, just focusing on the technique,” Waine explained. The sessions were narrow, repetitive, almost obsessive. He wanted composure. A finish he could “go to without thinking so it became instinct.”

The work gave him something beyond technique. It gave him purpose. Even when he was nowhere near the squad, he knew what he was chasing. “It made me relax a bit more,” he said. Before that, the desperation to impress had scrambled his mind in front of goal. “Because I was so desperate to do well, I was rushing actions in front of goal.”

Most of the drills focused on striking, yet the Sunderland moment came from his head. A loopy header back across the goalkeeper, dropping perfectly into the far corner. Exactly as he had seen it in his mind.

“The second finishing drill we didn't do a huge amount of but I did a lot of visualising of it off the field as well. And the one goal that I actually pictured was that Sunderland goal, the kind of loopy header back across the goalkeeper.”

It sounds like the sort of finish you stumble upon in the chaos of a cup tie. For Waine, it was muscle memory and mental rehearsal colliding at the right second. “That action of going across the goalkeeper is one we had worked on and it just became a bit more natural. It was really cool to see that come off.”

Then came the celebration. A kid from New Zealand, family of Newcastle United supporters, standing in front of the Sunderland away end and throwing up the full Alan Shearer salute. Arm raised. Old-school centre-forward homage.

“It was just awesome. I had never seen the stadium like that before. It was absolutely bouncing,” he recalled.

The goal was one of eight for Port Vale, a personal surge in the middle of a grim campaign. “I kind of took it with both hands,” he said. “It sounds silly but I actually enjoyed playing my football again.”

That joy had not travelled with him immediately when he first crossed the world.

The brutal jump to England

Waine left Wellington Phoenix for Plymouth Argyle in January 2023. On paper, it was the dream move: a shot at English football with a club on the rise. On the grass, it was a shock to the system.

“I knew the jump to League One would be big. Not technically, but in terms of intensity and physicality, the adjustment was massive,” he said. Then Plymouth went up. Championship football arrived almost overnight.

“You get this amazing promotion and you are playing Championship football all of a sudden. It almost came too quickly.”

He still found flashes. A couple of Championship goals, including one at Elland Road against Leeds United. Enough to show he belonged, not enough to guarantee a run of starts. To find regular minutes he went on loan to Mansfield. That move stalled.

“That just did not work out at all,” he said, bluntly.

The easy option sat 18,000 kilometres away. Go home. Reset. Be a big fish again. He refused.

“I promised myself that however hard it got I was not going to go back. That would have been the easy option. I stuck it out and have come out of it as a better player and a better person.”

Now the payoff stands in front of him. A World Cup, and a genuine shot at minutes on the biggest stage he has ever known.

From Olympic cauldrons to the ‘104 Super Bowls’

Gianni Infantino has christened this expanded 2026 tournament the “104 Super Bowls.” Hyperbole for some, but for players like Waine, it captures the scale. Every game a global event. Every touch watched.

He is not new to big occasions. Waine has already played in two Olympic Games for New Zealand. “France in the Velodrome was an awesome game to be a part of,” he said. That night in Marseille felt huge. The World Cup will dwarf it.

“It is going to be another level up.”

The All Whites have been feeling that rise in standard for months. Waine scored in a 4-1 win over Chile in March, a marker of what this squad can do on their best days. But the rest of the build-up has been unforgiving: defeats to Colombia, Ecuador, Finland, and more recently Haiti and England.

“You have to realise that when we are stepping up and playing harder opposition, we cannot expect the results to be perfect. We have had to mentally adjust.”

For Waine, there is a tactical adjustment on the table as well.

Learning to live with Wood

By instinct and by trade, he calls himself “a running nine” – a striker who presses hard and sprints in behind defences. New Zealand already have a centre-forward carved from that mould, only heavier, older, more proven: Chris Wood, the country’s record scorer and standard-bearer.

There is no illusion about dislodging him. So Waine has broadened his game.

Time at Port Vale has seen him move out wide, pulling onto the left and the right, learning different angles and different responsibilities. What began as a compromise has become a strength.

“At the start, I was a bit hesitant but I see it as a really positive thing. It just felt really natural. I am actually playing on the left, on the right and down the middle now. It adds another dynamic, which should help my case.”

Wood has offered something else: a lesson in patience.

“As a striker, you can barely touch the ball all game but when that one chance comes, you had better take it. He has proven time and time again that he can do that.”

One chance. The phrase keeps circling back.

Chasing New Zealand’s first World Cup win

New Zealand open against Iran, then face Egypt and Belgium. No one is rushing to label them favourites. But this is not the worst draw they could have pulled.

“My first thought was that we have actually got a chance here,” Waine said. “Everyone sees us as underdogs but we want to take the opportunity that is in front of us. We want to get our first win on the world stage and we want to get out of the group for the first time ever.”

Mohamed Salah’s shirt will be in high demand when Egypt arrive. Waine is realistic. “I am assuming there will be a few people pulling rank,” he said with a smile. The souvenir he really wants cannot be folded into a kitbag.

He wants a World Cup moment. A goal. A snapshot that lives forever in New Zealand football history.

“There is going to be that opportunity to be the hero. You just want that one moment.”

If it comes, the Shearer celebration might reappear. “Maybe it will reappear,” he said, laughing. The image fits him: the kid who grew up with Premier League icons on the screen, now standing inside their world.

The bigger target is less romantic, more relentless. “To squeeze the most out of my potential.” That is how he frames it. After what he calls “a lot of ups and downs,” he has fought his way into position.

Now it is simple. The work is done. The stage is set.

“It just has to be taken really.”