Ben Waine's Journey to the World Cup: From Struggles to Hope

Ben Waine was nowhere near a World Cup when he was sat out of the Port Vale squad, wondering what had gone wrong with his move to England. Now he is one of the forwards New Zealand will pin their hopes on at what Gianni Infantino has grandly labelled the “104 Super Bowls” of 2026.

The distance between those two realities is measured in lonely afternoons on the training pitch, a loopy header against Sunderland, and a stubborn refusal to fly home.

“It has been a tough season. I'm not going to lie,” he told Sky Sports.

For a spell at Vale Park, he was not just out of form, he was out of sight. “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 slid out of League One, but Waine quietly salvaged something from the wreckage. He finished with eight goals, the most vivid of them the FA Cup winner against Sunderland in March. In a brutal campaign, that one moment cut through the gloom. “It made a tough season a little bit more bearable,” he said.

That header was not an accident. It was the end product of repetition, of detail, of a striker rebuilding himself.

Every day, Waine stayed back with individual coach Simon Ireland. Just the two of them. One or two types of finish, over and over, the same movements until they stopped needing thought.

“Literally, every day we would work on one or two types of finish, just focusing on the technique,” he said. “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 needed that calm. He admits he had been snatching at chances, too desperate to prove himself. “Because I was so desperate to do well, I was rushing actions in front of goal.”

The work with Ireland centred on striking the ball cleanly, yet the Sunderland goal came from his head. No matter. The process was the same.

“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 celebration told its own story. Waine, from a Newcastle-supporting family, wheeled away in front of the Sunderland fans with an unmistakable Alan Shearer salute. Arms out, one hand in the air, a childhood idol channelled in an FA Cup tie.

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

Those eight goals for Port Vale did more than pad a stat sheet. They gave him back his enjoyment. “I kind of took it with both hands. It sounds silly but I actually enjoyed playing my football again.”

That joy had been missing since he left Wellington Phoenix for Plymouth Argyle in January 2023. The move looked like a natural step for one of New Zealand’s brightest forwards, but English football does not always care for tidy narratives.

Plymouth were in League One when he arrived. The jump was steep.

“I knew the jump to League One would be big. Not technically, but in terms of intensity and physicality, the adjustment was massive. And then you get this amazing promotion and you are playing Championship football all of a sudden. It almost came too quickly.”

He scored a couple of Championship goals, including one at Elland Road against Leeds United, a landmark for any visiting striker. Yet minutes remained scarce. A loan to Mansfield was supposed to fix that. It did not.

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

The easy call would have been a flight back to New Zealand, a return to familiar surroundings and guaranteed starts. 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 comes the payoff: a World Cup, and a genuine shot at leaving a mark on it.

Waine is no stranger to big stages. He has already played at two Olympic Games for New Zealand, including a clash with France at the Stade Velodrome. “France in the Velodrome was an awesome game to be a part of.” Yet he knows this is different. “It is going to be another level up.”

The All Whites have felt that level rising in their preparation. Waine scored in a 4-1 win over Chile in March, a reminder of his penalty-box instincts, but the rest of the build-up has been harsh. Defeats to Colombia, Ecuador, Finland, Haiti and England have stripped away any illusions.

“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, the adjustments might not be purely mental. They could be positional too.

He sees himself as “a running nine,” the striker who presses hard, stretches defences, and makes those selfless runs in behind. New Zealand already have one of those – and a prolific one – in Chris Wood, the country’s record scorer and talisman.

So Waine has broadened his game. At Port Vale he spent time on the left, and it clicked. “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 is realistic. There will be no dislodging Wood. What he can do is make himself impossible to ignore anywhere across the front line.

Watching Wood at close quarters has been an education in what separates a good striker from a decisive one. Patience, above all.

“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. That is the theme that keeps returning.

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

New Zealand will open against Iran, then face Egypt and Belgium. It is a demanding group, but not the worst the draw could have thrown at them.

“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.”

There will be subplots. Mohamed Salah’s shirt, for one. Waine laughs that he is unlikely to get near it. “I am assuming there will be a few people pulling rank.”

He might leave with something far more enduring than a souvenir jersey. A World Cup goal. A defining celebration. Maybe even that Shearer salute again. “Maybe it will reappear,” he said, still smiling at the thought.

For now, the focus is narrower, more personal. To “squeeze the most out of my potential,” as he puts it. After “a lot of ups and downs,” he has hauled himself back into a place where the biggest stage in football is no longer a distant dream, but the next fixture on the calendar.

The chance he has been visualising for years is coming. The question now is simple: when it finally drops, can he take it?