Ben Waine's Journey to the World Cup: From Port Vale to the Big Stage

Ben Waine’s route to the World Cup did not begin with a grand unveiling or a viral clip. It began with his name missing from a Port Vale teamsheet.

There was no injury bulletin to explain it away, no tactical justification that made it easier to swallow. He was just out. Weeks went by like that.

"It has been a tough season. I'm not going to lie," he tells 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."

From the outside, it looked bleak. Port Vale slid towards relegation. A 25-year-old New Zealander, fresh to English football and already on his second club, drifted to the margins.

Inside, something else was happening.

From the stands to Sunderland

Relegation will stain the record books, but Waine’s season carries a different headline in his mind: that header against Sunderland in the FA Cup.

"It made a tough season a little bit more bearable," he says. That is the polite version. In truth, it felt like vindication.

The goal did not come out of nowhere. It came out of repetition. Out of empty pitches and one-on-one sessions with individual coach Simon Ireland.

"Literally, every day we would work on one or two types of finish, just focusing on the technique," Waine explains. It was not glamorous work. Same movements, same angles, again and again.

"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."

The problem, as he saw it, was simple: he wanted it too much.

"Because I was so desperate to do well, I was rushing actions in front of goal."

So they slowed everything down. First the technique. Then the mind.

The Sunderland goal, a loopy header back across the goalkeeper, looks improvised in real time. It was not.

"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 family of Newcastle supporters, wheeled away in front of the Sunderland fans and froze in that unmistakable Alan Shearer salute.

"It was just awesome. I had never seen the stadium like that before. It was absolutely bouncing," he recalls.

By the end of the campaign he had eight goals for Port Vale and, crucially, his joy back.

"I kind of took it with both hands. It sounds silly but I actually enjoyed playing my football again."

A long way from Wellington

None of this was guaranteed when he left Wellington Phoenix for Plymouth Argyle in January 2023. The move was bold. The adjustment brutal.

"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 did find the net at that level, including a goal at Elland Road against Leeds United, but minutes were scarce. A loan to Mansfield was meant to fix that. It did not.

"That just did not work out at all."

The easy option sat 11,000 miles away.

"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 reward: a place at a World Cup that FIFA president Gianni Infantino has already packaged as "104 Super Bowls".

For most players, that is marketing fluff. For someone who has spent time outside the matchday squad in League One, it lands differently.

All Whites, higher ceiling

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 says. That was a taste. This will be something else entirely.

"It is going to be another level up."

New Zealand have been learning that the hard way. Waine scored in a 4-1 win over Chile in March, a statement result on paper, but the rest of the build-up has been a grind: defeats to Colombia, Ecuador, Finland, then Haiti and England.

"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 might have to adjust his role as well. Waine describes himself as "a running nine" who likes to "press hard and get in behind the opposition", but Chris Wood is the country’s standard-bearer up front and remains undroppable.

That pushes Waine into different spaces. Fortunately, Port Vale have already nudged him there.

"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.

What he can do is learn. One lesson stands out.

"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 on the world stage

New Zealand open against Iran, then face Egypt and Belgium. It is a group that contains pedigree and star power, but also a sliver of opportunity.

"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."

Mohamed Salah’s shirt will be in high demand when they meet Egypt.

"I am assuming there will be a few people pulling rank," Waine jokes.

He would settle for something else: a moment. A header, a sprint in behind, a finish he has seen a hundred times in his mind before the ball even leaves his boot.

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

If it comes, the Shearer celebration might make another appearance.

"Maybe it will reappear," he says, laughing.

Behind the smile sits a simple aim.

"To squeeze the most out of my potential."

From being left out at Port Vale to visualising goals against Sunderland, from Olympic campaigns to a World Cup group that suddenly looks inviting, Waine has dragged himself to the edge of something significant.

"It just has to be taken really."