Auckland FC’s inaugural Isuzu UTE A-League head coach Steve Corica said the expansion club have already signed close to a dozen players ahead of their inaugural 2024-25 season.
Sydney FC legend Corica will lead the Bill Foley-backed club in their first season and he revealed the team is quickly taking shape, with Sky Blues great Terry McFlynn director of football, overseeing the club’s player and coach recruitment for the men’s, women’s and Academy teams, football operations and sports science
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“We’re doing really well on the player front,” the two-time Championship-winning coach said at the launch.
“We’ve got nine players at the moment, I can tell you that. Seven of them are New Zealanders which is good. Obviously we’re a New Zealand club and we want the fans to get right behind us and the boys too.
“By the time we get to the start of the season, we should have 25 players.
“A lot of work to do on the recruitment side of things – for players and staff. But that’s the challenge I thought this was about and I’m very excited about it.”
Corica, who left Sydney in November, added: “That was part of the reason coming here too, a new challenge. Obviously being at one club for 19 years, this is a great opportunity to start up fresh again and build a team from scratch which is exciting.
“We have Terry McFlynn, Doug Kors does all the recruitment as well. Between the three of us, it’s an exciting time putting a team together and making sure we get the right players to come in and play the style of football we want.”
Auckland FC CEO Nick Becker also discussed the club’s recruitment.
“We’re a team from Auckland, a team from New Zealand, so we want a good mix of Kiwi players. So we’re looking to bring in a lot of young New Zealand players,” he said.
“Also there’s some New Zealand players overseas, bring them back to New Zealand and that’s the really exciting part of this.
“The other part is we’re going to have a mix of some players who’ve been around the A-Leagues and know what it takes to win. Then we have the five visa spots.
“We’re really lucky with that in being part of a multi-club model – we have scouts who are based at Bournemouth. We have connections into Hibs and Lorient too. We’re using all those connections to go out there and look for European players, South American players.”
