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

Ben Waine stood on the outside looking in not so long ago, nowhere near Port Vale’s matchday squad and even further from the World Cup stage Gianni Infantino now dresses up as “104 Super Bowls.”

Now he is days away from walking into one of them.

“It has been a tough season. I'm not going to lie,” he told Sky Sports. There were weeks when his name never made the team sheet, when Saturday came and went and he was just another body at training. “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. He did not. Somewhere in the middle of a grim campaign came a moment that changed the temperature of his year – a winning goal against Sunderland in a raucous FA Cup tie in March.

“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, sweat and a very deliberate rebuild. Waine talks about the one-on-one work with individual coach Simon Ireland like a lifeline.

“Literally, every day we would work on one or two types of finish, just focusing on the technique,” he explained. It was stripped back, almost obsessive. Same runs, same body shape, same contact.

“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 why he had been snatching at chances. “Because I was so desperate to do well, I was rushing actions in front of goal.” The drills slowed his head down when everything around him sped up.

And then came Sunderland. The goal that killed them was a loopy header back across the goalkeeper, the kind of finish that usually belongs to instinct and muscle memory. For Waine, it also belonged to his imagination.

“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.”

What followed was pure theatre. Waine, from a Newcastle-supporting family, wheeled away and threw up the famous Alan Shearer single-arm salute in front of the travelling Sunderland support. A cheeky nod, a childhood homage, and a moment he will carry with him.

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

That goal was one of eight for Port Vale, a healthy return in a relegated side and a marker of how sharply his fortunes had turned. “I kind of took it with both hands. It sounds silly but I actually enjoyed playing my football again.”

Enjoyment had not been guaranteed since he left Wellington Phoenix for Plymouth Argyle in January 2023. The move was bold. The adjustment brutal.

Plymouth were in League One when he arrived, and English football hit him like a wave.

“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 still found a way to leave a mark – a couple of Championship goals, including one at Elland Road against Leeds United – but his rhythm never quite settled. A loan to Mansfield, designed to bring minutes and confidence, delivered neither.

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

The easy option hovered in the background: go home, reset, start again in New Zealand. He shut that door himself.

“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 stands in front of him. A World Cup. A genuine shot at a defining moment.

Waine is not new to big stages. He has already played in two Olympic Games for New Zealand, including a game against France at the Velodrome. “France in the Velodrome was an awesome game to be a part of.” The World Cup, he knows, lives on another plane.

“It is going to be another level up.”

The All Whites have already had a reminder of that. A 4-1 win over Chile in March, with Waine on the scoresheet, showed what they can do. The defeats since – Colombia, Ecuador, Finland, then Haiti and England – showed exactly where the bar now sits.

“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 on the pitch as well. Waine calls himself “a running nine” who wants to “press hard and get in behind the opposition,” but New Zealand’s No 9 shirt belongs to Chris Wood, the country’s record scorer and standard bearer.

To get on the pitch, Waine may need to move.

His time at Port Vale has already nudged him in that direction. He has played from the left, sometimes the right, sometimes through the middle. At first, he resisted the idea. That faded quickly.

“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.”

Because nobody is dislodging Wood.

What he can do is learn from him. One lesson cuts through everything else.

“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 what Waine is chasing now.

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

New Zealand open against Iran, then face Egypt and Belgium. On paper, it is unforgiving. In Waine’s mind, it is something else.

“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.”

He laughs when the subject of Mohamed Salah’s shirt comes up. “I am assuming there will be a few people pulling rank.” The souvenir he really wants cannot be folded into a kit bag.

He wants a World Cup moment. The kind that lives on clips and highlight reels and in his own head for the rest of his life. Maybe it comes with another Shearer celebration. “Maybe it will reappear,” he said, still smiling.

The aim has not changed since those lonely weeks outside the squad. “To squeeze the most out of my potential.” The path has been jagged, full of “a lot of ups and downs,” but it has led him here, to the brink of something he has worked towards every day.

Now it is simple. The chance he has visualised is finally within reach.

“It just has to be taken really.”