Gianni Ryan Stensness (born 7 February 1999) is an Australian professional

soccer player 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

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Norwegian

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

club

Viking FK Viking Fotballklubb, commonly known as Viking or Viking Stavanger internationally, is a Norwegian football club from the city of Stavanger. The club was founded in 1899. It is one of the most successful clubs in Norwegian football, having won 8 ...

. A former youth international for New Zealand, Stensness plays for the Australia national team.

Club career

Wellington Phoenix

In March 2019, Stensness was promoted to the

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

first team from their reserves. On 9 March 2019, he played his first professional game for the club. He came on as a substitute for

Mandi Mandi may refer to: Places * Mandı, Azerbaijan India * Mandi, Jammu and Kashmir, a town on the Mandi River in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir * Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, a city in Himachal Pradesh ** Mandi State, former princely sta ...

in an 8–2 win over his former side,

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Ma ...

. In June 2019, he left Wellington Phoenix to explore opportunities in Europe.

Central Coast Mariners

Stensness returned from Europe and was offered a contract with Wellington Phoenix, but decided to sign a one-year contract with

in August 2019 as a midfielder. After a strong start to the 2019–20 season, Stensness signed a two-year extension on his contract, through to 2022. His performances in the 2019–20 season earned him the CCM Goal of the Year and Newcomer of the Year awards. Stensness also had the most tackles in the A-league in the 2019–20 season and gained the highest OPTA score of any player in the team. Stensness showed himself to be one of the strongest and most commanding defensive midfielders in the A-league in season 20/21.

Viking FK

On 9 August 2021, he signed a three-year contract with Norwegian club

. He made his debut for the club on 29 August 2021, in a 2–1 win against Rosenborg.

International career

Eligible for both Australia and New Zealand (Australia via birth, New Zealand via paternal birth), 17-year old Stensness was named by

Ufuk Talay Ufuk Talay (born 26 March 1976) is an Australian football coach and former player. Talay was suited to play in central midfield and was known for his good distribution and on-field vision. He is the current manager of Wellington Phoenix. Club c ...

in an Australian under-20 national team training camp on 31 January 2017. In August 2017, Stensness was part of the under-20 team who played in a Tri Series against the Western Australia state team and against the

Singapore national under-19 football team The Singapore national under-19 football team is the national Under 19 association football team of Singapore. The team comes under the organization of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS). Players were selected from the nation's Nationa ...

. On 11 February 2019, Stensness was invited by New Zealand under-20 national team coach

Des Buckingham Desmond Buckingham (born 7 February 1985) is an English professional football manager who is the current head coach of Indian Super League club Mumbai City. Buckingham became the youngest head coach in the history of the A-League during ...

to a talent identification camp in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. On 23 March 2019 he declared his desire to represent New Zealand. On 28 May 2019, Stensness scored his first goal for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

at the

U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 wh ...

against

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 ...

, helping his team advance to the

round of 16 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

. In September 2021, Stensness decided to represent

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

internationally. He debuted with Australia in a 2–0

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualificationAlso the "FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers". was the qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Parallel tour ...

loss to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

on 24 March 2022.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stensness, Gianni 1999 births Living people Soccer players from Brisbane Australian soccer players Australia international soccer players Australia youth international soccer players New Zealand association footballers New Zealand youth international footballers New Zealand under-23 international footballers Australian expatriate soccer players New Zealand expatriate association footballers Australian people of New Zealand descent New Zealand people of Australian descent Association football midfielders Wellington Phoenix FC players Central Coast Mariners FC players Viking FK players National Premier Leagues players A-League Men players Eliteserien players Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic association footballers of New Zealand Expatriate footballers in Norway Australian expatriate sportspeople in Norway New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Norway New Zealand under-20 international footballers Australia under-20 international soccer players