Joseph William Champness (born 27 April 1997) 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 ...

and

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

who plays as a winger for the

New Zealand national team New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. Born in New Zealand but raised in Australia, Champness represents New Zealand in international competition after switching from Australia in 2021.

Early life

Champness attended St Patrick's College where he was college captain in 2014. His younger brother Daniel Francis Champness, who was also college captain, plays as a midfielder for Moreton Bay United.

Club career

Newcastle Jets

Champness signed a scholarship contract with the

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from The Australia ...

along with three other emerging youngsters in January 2017 until the end of the 2017–18 season, but almost immediately after the deals were announced Champness and former emerging Jet Antonee Burke signed a loan deal with

Portuguese second division Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

club Académica de Coimbra through to mid-2017. Champness spent his time at Academica playing football for the reserve team and occasionally training with the first team. Champness had a successful pre-season in 2017 appearing regularly for the first team, scoring four goals and impressing new coach

Ernie Merrick Ernest Merrick OAM (born 15 January 1953) is a Scottish-Australian coach, who last managed A-League soccer club Newcastle Jets. He was released on 6 January 2020. He was the former head coach of the Hong Kong national football team and A-League ...

enough to reward him with a three-year deal until 2019/20 although he will still be playing under the scholarship contract for the 2017–18 season. Champness made his professional debut on 7 October 2017 away to the

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 ...

coming on late and scoring a goal in the 81st minute. Champness then started his first professional game in Round 5 at home against 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 ...

. Champness scored his second goal for Newcastle in round 8 starting the game and scoring in the 75th minute in the Jets 4–1 win over the

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory e ...

. On 14 August 2019, prior to the season after spending most of the pre-season in the United States, Champness decided to quit playing soccer, so that he can follow his music career. He made statements to the effect that if he decided to return to playing in the next three years, he would come back to Newcastle Jets.

Brisbane Roar

Following his musical career break from football Champness joined

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland and has won the domestic title on three occasions, as well as holding the longest unbeaten record of 36 league matches without defeat. Brisba ...

on loan ahead of the

2020–21 A-League The 2020–21 A-League was the 44th season of national level soccer in Australia, and the 16th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. The season was started on 28 December 2020 and concluded with the Grand Final on 27 June 2021. The st ...

season, angering many in the Newcastle camp over his backing out of the alleged "deal" to return to the Jets.

Giresunspor

Champness joined Turkish club

Giresunspor Giresunspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Giresun. It was founded in 1925 and re-formed in 1967 after the merger of Yeşiltepespor, Akıngençlikspor, and Beşiktaşspor. The football club is playing in the Turkish S ...

of the

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

on a three-year contract with a possible one-year extension into the 2024–25 season. Due to unpaid wages he left the club in March 2022 after 13 games, having scored 4 goals while coming on as a substitute in almost all of his matches. Champness terminated the contract and proceeded with a FIFA Dispute Resolution claim. FIFA found in favour of Champness and awarded him €790,000 Euros (1.33 million New Zealand Dollars) plus interest.

International career

Champness was born in New Zealand to a

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

mother, making him eligible to represent New Zealand, Australia and Philippines at international level. He has represented Australia at youth level, and was a member of the

Young Socceroos The Australia national under-20 soccer team, known colloquially as the Young Socceroos, represents Australia in international under-20 soccer. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia (FA), which ...

team in the

2016 AFC U-19 Championship The 2016 AFC U-19 Championship was the 39th edition of the AFC U-19 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-19 national teams of Asia. The tournam ...

in Bahrain. It was reported on 14 June 2021 that Champness changed his international allegiance to New Zealand. On 25 June, Champness was selected in the New Zealand squad competing in the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. He made his debut for the

on 12 October 2021 in a friendly against

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

Music career

Outside from his football career, Champness releases music under the name JOWIC. He has released 5 singles as of May 2021. His biggest single, "My Plan" was released in February 2020, amassing over 3.5 million combined views over multiple platforms, and placements on the music TV stations

BET Jams BET Jams is an American pay television network controlled by BET Networks and owned by Paramount Media Networks. The channel features hip-hop and urban contemporary music videos. The network, formerly known as MTV Jams, was rebranded under the ...

and

VH1 Soul BET Soul is an American pay television network that is controlled by the BET Networks division of Paramount Global, which owns the network. The channel showcases R&B, funk, soul, neo soul, hip hop, jazz and Motown music from various decades. T ...

. Critical response “My Plan” received a 3.5/5 rating from

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

critic Dave Ruby Howe, who compared the style of the song to

PartyNextDoor Jahron Anthony Brathwaite (born July 3, 1993), known professionally as PartyNextDoor (stylized as PARTYNEXTDOOR), is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. PartyNextDoor was the first artist signed to Drake's OVO Sound record label ...

and

Bryson Tiller Bryson Djuan Tiller (born January 2, 1993) is an American singer and rapper. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he began his career in 2011 with a mixtape entitled ''Killer Instinct Vol. 1''. Tiller initially gained mainstream success in 2015 follow ...

. In 2019, Champness left the Newcastle Jets to pursue a music career in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Champness came back to Australia in the wake of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, and signed on loan with the Brisbane Roar. This caused a backlash from the Jets, who claimed that Champness had signed a contract that said if he came back from Los Angeles within three years, he would only be able to play for them.

Career statistics

Honours

Australia U19 *

AFF U-19 Youth Championship The AFF U-19 Youth Championship is an annual international football competition contested by the national teams of the members of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and occasionally invited nations from the rest of Asia. The tournament was pre ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Champness, Joe 1997 births Living people Association footballers from Auckland New Zealand men's association footballers New Zealand men's international footballers Olympic association footballers for New Zealand Australian men's soccer players Australia men's under-20 international soccer players New Zealand people of Australian descent Australian people of New Zealand descent New Zealand people of Filipino descent Australian people of Filipino descent Sportspeople of Filipino descent Men's association football forwards A-League Men players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Süper Lig players TFF First League players Académica de Coimbra (football) players Newcastle Jets FC players Brisbane Roar FC players Giresunspor footballers Adanaspor footballers Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Australian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Australian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Turkey People educated at St Patrick's College, Shorncliffe