Wellington Phoenix have handed scholarship contracts to four of the club’s reserve squad members ahead of the 2024-25 Liberty A-League season.
Each member of the reserve-team quartet has penned a two-year scholarship deal with the Phoenix: goalkeeper Aimee Danieli, centre-back Ella McMillan, attacking midfielder Ela Jerez and striker Ella McCann.
News of the four newest scholarship contracts came as the Phoenix promoted former scholarship players Olivia Ingham and Daisy Brazendale to full-time deals for the next two seasons.
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Jerez, 16, has continued her rise through the Wellington ranks having helped New Zealand’s Under-17 squad qualify for the Under-17 Women’s World Cup in the Dominican Republic in October-November this year.
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Phoenix head coach Paul Temple says the club have tremendous faith in the scholarship quartet, and what they can bring to the Liberty A-League squad across the next two seasons.
“It’s the best part of the job being able to sit down with the players and their families and to tell them they’re getting offered contracts,” Temple said.
“It’s a journey for the players and their families to get to this point, and it’s fantastic to be able to reward them for all the hard work and sacrifices they’ve made with their first opportunity in professional football.
“These four are the cream of the crop in their positions at the academy and I’ve got no doubt they can make the step up to the first team.
“We’ve got a lot of faith in our academy and what’s going on at Fraser Park, so to be able to give our scholarship contracts to our homegrown academy players for a second straight year is really awesome for us as a club.”
Having signed Danieli, McMillan, Jerez and McCann to scholarship deals while bumping Ingham and Brazendale up to full-time contracts, Temple’s squad has expanded to 15 ahead of the 2024-25 Liberty A-League season, with further squad announcements to come.
