Wellington Phoenix star Oskar Zawada says he’s open to extending stay in New Zealand when his contract runs down at the end of the 2023-24 Isuzu UTE A-League campaign.
Speculation about the Polish striker’s future is rife with the current transfer window still open and his Phoenix contract running down; Zawada has bagged 20 goals in 33 appearances for Wellington since his arrival in 2022, including a winning goal off the bench against Newcastle Jets last weekend on return from a seven-week layoff.
Zawada returns to the selection fold with the Phoenix sitting pretty at the top of the Isuzu UTE A-League table. With 13 rounds left in the regular season and the prospect of a deep run into the finals, Zawada says his full focus is on what he can produce on the pitch for Wellington between now and the end of his current contract.
But when asked whether he’d remain at the club beyond this season, he responded with a smile: “I don’t know.”
“I don’t know the answer. Right now, I think it’s important to focus on the last 13 games. I’m open for everything. It’s difficult to say right now.
“I just try to focus on the games because if I play (well) then the good offer from Phoenix will come… what happens next to the football pitch, I just try to put it to the side and not focus (on) it at all. I just leave it for my agent, and he’s going to handle that.
“The answer is: I don’t know what’s going to happen – and I’m not lying! I don’t know.”
At the time, Italiano confessed that if Zawada receives “the right offer to go overseas, he will take it.”
But ahead of Wellington’s clash with Brisbane Roar on Friday night, Zawada gave Phoenix fans hope that his future beyond this season could lie in Wellington after all.
“I’m very happy in Wellington, actually that’s my best years in my life,” Zawada said. “And also football, I feel like also there (have been) amazing years since I’m here.
“My career has started getting better and better and I have big respect to this club and this place. As I said, I don’t know. That’s the conversation between me, the club and my agent – and not journalists.
“I don’t know exactly because football, sometimes it’s complicated, it’s not so simple how we think. So I just leave it to the professional people like the sporting director and other people who help me also to make my career better. I think we’re going to find a solution good for the club and good for me, and we will see.”
