Benjamin Peter Waine (born 11 June 2001) is a New Zealand professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for English League One club

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

and the New Zealand national football team.

Club career

Wellington Phoenix

On 7 August 2018, Waine made his debut for the senior side in their FFA Cup loss to

Bentleigh Greens Bentleigh Greens Soccer Club is an Australian semi professional soccer club based in Cheltenham, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. The club was formed in 1986, by the Greek Cypriot community and currently competes in the National Premier Leagues ...

. After his debut for the Phoenix in the FFA, Waine played most of his games for the Wellington Phoenix Reserves in the

ISPS Handa Premiership The New Zealand Football Championship ( mi, Te Whakataetae Whutupaoro a Aotearoa) was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a m ...

scoring a team high of 8 goals, before getting called up to the senior team again in March 2019 On 30 March 2019, Waine made his professional debut for the Wellington Phoenix coming on as a substitute in their 4–1 win over the Newcastle Jets. On 28 April 2019, Waine made his first start for the Phoenix in a 5–0 loss to the

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 19 ...

. On 21 June 2019, Waine signed a two-year contract with the Phoenix. The first year being a scholarship deal, with the second year moving him onto a full-time contract. Just before the 2019–20 season kicked off, the first year of this contract was upgraded to full-time. On 3 November 2019, Waine scored his first professional goal off the bench in Wellington's 3–2 loss to Melbourne City, passing

Liberato Cacace Liberato Gianpaolo Cacace ( ; born 27 September 2000) is a New Zealand professional footballer who plays as a left-back for club Empoli and the New Zealand national team. Club career Island Bay As a youth, Cacace played for Island Bay United a ...

to become the youngest goalscorer in the club's history at 18 years and 145 days.

Plymouth Argyle

On 30 December 2022, Waine agreed to join League One leaders

for an undisclosed fee on a two-and-a-half year deal, the transfer going through on 1 January when the transfer window opened.

International career

New Zealand U-20s

On 16 April 2019, Waine was selected as one of the 21 players for the New Zealand U-20 who played at the

2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 22nd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 ...

in Poland. He scored a brace in their opening match against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

on 24 May. He made two further appearances in the tournament, starting in both New Zealand's 2–0 victory over

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and the 1–1 loss on penalties to

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

in the Round of 16.

New Zealand U-23s

In September, Waine was a member of the New Zealand U-23 team, known as the "Oly-Whites", who took part in the

2019 OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament The 2019 OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament (also called the 2019 OFC U-23 Championship) was the eighth edition of the OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the quadrennial international age-restricted football championship organised by th ...

. He was second top goal scorer for the tournament with 8 goals including one in the final, helping New Zealand to qualify for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo.

New Zealand

Waine made his international debut, including scoring his first international goal for New Zealand in their

World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

match against

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, winning the game 1–0.

Career statistics

''As of match played 19 March 2022''

International

''As of match played 21 March 2022.''

International goals

:''Scores and results list the New Zealand goal tally first.''

Personal life

Waine attended school at Hutt International Boys' School in

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. Geography The Upper Hutt city cent ...

where he was the Junior school captain in 2019.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Waine, Ben 2001 births Living people Association footballers from Wellington City Association football forwards New Zealand association footballers Wellington Phoenix FC players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players New Zealand youth international footballers New Zealand Football Championship players A-League Men players Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic association footballers of New Zealand New Zealand under-20 international footballers New Zealand expatriate association footballers New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England English Football League players