Ben Waine's Journey to the World Cup: From Struggles to Triumph
Ben Waine was nowhere near a World Cup when he was nowhere near the Port Vale squad.
Not long ago, the New Zealander was sat in the stands, out of the matchday 18, wondering what had gone wrong with his move to England. Now he is heading to what Gianni Infantino grandly calls “104 Super Bowls” with a clarity that only hardship tends to bring.
“It has been a tough season. I'm not going to lie,” he told Sky Sports. “There was a good amount of time where I wasn't in the squad at all. It sucked in the moment but it was probably one of the best things to happen to me. I was really able to work on my game.”
Port Vale went down. Waine went up.
The club’s relegation framed the campaign as a failure, yet for the 25-year-old forward, one moment cut through the gloom: a winning goal against Sunderland in a raucous FA Cup tie in March. A single header that changed how he felt about everything.
“It made a tough season a little bit more bearable,” he said.
Rebuilding in the shadows
That goal was not an accident. It was the end product of lonely hours on training pitches, the quiet graft that rarely makes the highlights.
Waine credits his work with individual coach Simon Ireland for reshaping his finishing. “Literally, every day we would work on one or two types of finish, just focusing on the technique,” he explained. The sessions were repetitive, stripped back, almost obsessive.
“It was about trying to find that composure, that finish that I could go to without thinking so it became instinct. It gave me real purpose. I knew what I was working towards. Even when things were not going well, I had that to work on. It made me relax a bit more.”
He realised how much he had been forcing it.
“Because I was so desperate to do well, I was rushing actions in front of goal.”
Most of the drills focused on striking the ball cleanly, but the Sunderland winner came from his head. Even so, he traces that moment directly back to those sessions – and to the work he did away from the grass.
“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. I had actually visualised it.
“It does not seem like one you would practise when you are just working on the technique of hitting the ball but 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.”
The header dropped in. Vale Park exploded. And Waine, whose family are Newcastle supporters, wheeled away and threw up an unmistakable celebration: the straight-armed Alan Shearer salute, delivered in front of the travelling Sunderland support.
“It was just awesome. I had never seen the stadium like that before. It was absolutely bouncing,” he recalled.
That was one of eight goals for Port Vale, a respectable return that spoke of a season salvaged on a personal level. “I kind of took it with both hands,” he said. “It sounds silly but I actually enjoyed playing my football again.”
It had not always felt that way since he left Wellington Phoenix.
The hard road from Wellington
When Waine joined Plymouth Argyle in January 2023, he stepped into a different world. League One football in Devon was a long way from home and a long way from the A-League, in every sense.
“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 came the twist. Plymouth surged to promotion, and suddenly the Kiwi forward was facing Championship defenders.
“And then you get this amazing promotion and you are playing Championship football all of a sudden. It almost came too quickly.”
He still found his moments – a couple of goals at that level, including one at Elland Road against Leeds United – but game time never truly settled. A loan to Mansfield, meant to bring minutes and rhythm, only deepened the frustration.
“That just did not work out at all,” he admitted.
The easy solution sat 11,000 miles away. Go home. Reset. Disappear from the brutal churn of the English pyramid.
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 reward is in front of him: a World Cup, and a chance to turn all that struggle into something lasting.
From Olympics to the world stage
Waine is not new to big stages. He 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, thinking back to Marseille.
But even that, he knows, is only a reference point. “It is going to be another level up,” he said of the World Cup.
The All Whites have already felt that level bite during their build-up. Waine scored in a 4-1 win over Chile in March, a reminder of his threat in front of goal, but the rest of the schedule has been unforgiving. Defeats to Colombia, Ecuador and Finland, followed by losses to Haiti and England, have exposed the gap they are trying to close.
“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,” he said.
His own role may need adjusting too.
Waine describes himself as “a running nine” who likes to “press hard and get in behind the opposition”. Yet New Zealand’s most celebrated player, Chris Wood, still commands the centre-forward berth and the attention that comes with it.
If Waine wants minutes, he may have to find them elsewhere.
Learning from Wood, fighting for space
Port Vale have already given him a head start. Late in the season, he played from the left and discovered something new.
“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.”
He knows the reality. “There will be no ousting Wood,” as the cold logic of selection goes. So he watches and learns.
What stands out? 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 returning.
“There is going to be that opportunity to be the hero,” Waine said. “You just want that one moment.”
New Zealand open against Iran before facing Egypt and Belgium. They are not tipped to progress. They are not tipped to do much of anything.
Waine sees it differently.
“My first thought was that we have actually got a chance here. 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.”
Ambition, not delusion. A target, not a slogan.
Chasing a moment
There will be small subplots within the bigger story. Mohamed Salah’s shirt, for instance.
“I am assuming there will be a few people pulling rank,” Waine joked. Senior players will have first call on that particular souvenir. He might leave the pitch without a jersey to show for it.
He is after something else anyway.
A World Cup moment. A goal that lives beyond a season, beyond a loan spell, beyond a relegation. Maybe, just maybe, another Alan Shearer celebration on the biggest stage of all.
“Maybe it will reappear,” he said, laughing.
For now, the aim remains simple and relentless. “To squeeze the most out of my potential.” He calls the journey so far “a lot of ups and downs”. The dips have hardened him. The work has given him tools. The World Cup hands him a platform.
“It just has to be taken really.”
One chance. He has been rehearsing it in his head for years.
