Kosta Barbarouses is on the cusp of joining the Isuzu UTE A-League’s 100-goal club. The evergreen Wellington Phoenix star speaks to aleagues.com.au about his journey to this point and what is motivating him.
In the Isuzu UTE A-League’s 20-year history, only three players have scored 100 goals. Kosta Barbarouses is on the verge of joining that exclusive list of centurions.
The Wellington Phoenix great has 99* goals to his name since first entering the competition in 2007-08. Should he score against high-flying Adelaide United on Saturday, he would not only join all-time leading goalscorer Jamie Maclaren (154), legendary striker Besart Berisha (142) and Melbourne Victory’s Bruno Fornaroli (108*) as just the fourth player to reach the milestone, but become the first New Zealander to score 100 league goals.
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“You just have to look at the names that are there,” Barbarouses told aleagues.com.au.
“I’ve played with Bruno (Fornaroli) for a year in Greece and is a good friend. Bes is one of my favourite and best ever teammates. We roomed together for years and (he’s a) great guy, and obviously Macca what he’s done year after year for a long time.
“Even just to surpass more good mates, Archie (Thompson) and Smeltzy (Shane Smeltz). These guys are some of the best players ever in our league so to be amongst it… really, really proud, proud to be there, sort of humbling as well to know that my hard work. I always think that hard work gets rewarded, and you sort of end up, not all the time but a lot of time, where you deserve. The work you put in gets rewarded.
“It’ll be very a proud moment for for me and my family. And honestly, when I get there, I just want to keep going and give more. My next target is obviously, to overtake Bruno and see how far I can get. Very, very happy to just be even spoken about amongst those unbelievable players.”
The 34-year-old has already scored six goals this season, having bagged 13 amid the Phoenix’s history-making 2023-24 campaign – his best return since netting 15 league goals for Melbourne Victory in 2018-19.
To put it further into context, Barbarouses scored 12 league goals combined across the 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons and he is showing no signs of slowing down with his sights set on the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
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“I’m hungrier than ever to be honest,” he said. “The beautiful thing about football is there’s always targets and goals to achieve. I think when you get to around, if you’re lucky enough to get to where I am, been involved for a while certain goals, if you’re doing well, become reachable and attainable.
“I’ve still got a few big goals to to achieve. Obviously, the 100 goals is very close, and within touching distance, there’s appearances that I want to get to hopefully.
“The big one is also getting to the World Cup for New Zealand and the only way that’s going to happen is if I’m performing at club level.
“I think that’s what keeps me hungry and keeps me going and also doing it in my home city as well, trying to make everyone here proud of not just of myself, my family here, but of the club. I know we did that last season without winning anything, but we created a good buzz around the city. So I think it’s stuff like that, you know, it’s not really much deeper than that.”
They often say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Barbarouses is debunking that myth.
His 35th birthday may be next month, but the evergreen Phoenix star is in some of the best form of his career. In fact, he is only getting better as he leads the way in a new position having gone 17 games without a goal before ending his drought in December 2023.
Predominately a winger or wide forward throughout his illustrious career, Barbarouses has been deployed as a striker since Giancarlo ‘Chiefy’ Italiano replaced Ufuk Talay ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, and he has not looked out of place.
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“That goalless streak… I think with football, timing is everything as well. My last year at Sydney, I fractured my foot and I think I missed probably 18 games, and came back in the back of it. But I wasn’t really right,” Barbarouses reflected. “I sort of rushed myself as quick as I could. We weren’t going that well, so I just wanted to get back involved.
“I definitely wasn’t match fit. And then the year with Uffie (Ufuk Talay) was very stop, start. Uncharacteristically, I had a few soft tissue injuries, so I never really got going, if I’m honest.
“From that, I was in and out of the team, so I never really doubted myself. I knew I look after myself. Football’s my life. So I know my body will be good as long as I am who I am. I knew I can still deliver if I can stay fit and give a good run of games.
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“Obviously Chief, he has played a massive part (in) that. He sort of trusted me to, not play wherever I like or do whatever I like, but he gives me the freedom. We have conversations every week (about) where I can be the most effective.
“I always tell him I just want to play up front, but he has plans there. He wants me to get in pockets and start in certain areas. But even having that conversation gives me confidence, normally, a coach would just say, this is where you’re playing or this is where I want you. So I have to give Chiefy credit as well.
“But the age thing, it’s funny because it does get brought up a lot, but when you look at our best goalscorers in our league, everyone’s in their 30s. You know, Bruno, Tags (Adam Taggart), Macca, Bes. They’re all scoring in their 30s. So I guess for me, people may be surprised that I’ve still got my speed and my sharpness, maybe because I’m not the same striker as some of those guys.
“I’m sort of still running in behind and and scoring different types of goals, maybe. Touch wood, I really look after myself, and I’m very just football and family oriented. So I think I’ll be able to continue for a little while longer.”
Lured to Brisbane by Ange: ‘One of the best years of my life’
It has been an incredible journey for Barbarouses, who is in his third stint with the Phoenix.
The Wellington-born forward spent his first three seasons with the ‘Nix, having signed as one of their foundation players in 2007. But the youngster was limited to 21 appearances in that period, scoring twice.
Then, Australian pioneer Ange Postecoglou – now managing Premier League side Tottenham, and Brisbane Roar came calling in 2010.
There was interest from Newcastle Jets and Adelaide United, but Barbarouses opted for the Roar thanks to some wisdom from his father. It was part of Postecoglou’s transformation as Brisbane changed the game in the A-Leagues with the manner of their Premiership/Championship double in 2010-11.
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“It was pretty incredible,” Barbarouses recalled. “Even the way it came about because I was coming off contract here in Wellington after not playing that much in the three years as a young kid.
“I had a few clubs interested in the A-League. Brisbane obviously and I think it was Adelaide and Newcastle at the time, which I was a bit shocked by because, like I said, I hadn’t played a lot. But it showed me, obviously, I didn’t know this at the time, but once I got there, that Ange pretty much watches everything. He must have watched every A-League game, watched all the Wellington games, and seen my cameo appearances in the few starts that I got, and saw something that he liked or that he could work with. Remember, I was a foreigner there, you know, as a 20 year old.
“Once I got there, the funny thing is, I chose Brisbane and Ange because my brother is two years older than me, was at an Under-17 camp in Auckland a couple years before, and my dad went up there. I think Ange’s (Australia) U20s team were playing in a tournament there or some something like that. I remember my dad saying, I like the way he plays, there’s always triangles and blah blah. So we went with it based off that.
“Obviously the great conversation I had with him, pretty intense conversation because he’s straight down the line. But once I got there, it was just unbelievable. Like we had a team of not nobody’s, but a team of people with something to prove, people that haven’t sort of made their presence felt in the league, or made a statement, like myself, Erik (Paartalu), Ivan Franjic, obviously the foreigners, Thomas Bush had come with a good pedigree, but nobody’s seen him… They had been an okay team for a few years.
“I just even remember straight from the beginning, and setting the tone for training. We just trained like animals. It was all football based. I can’t remember many just running sessions, was all the fitness with the ball. I remember after a week, thinking, I love this. I’d come from here running every day in the preseason, and this new approach, perfect.
“Got his trust, probably not from the beginning, but I started the first few games. I haven’t been in the team like it since. We went into games not even thinking that we’ll lose, would win or draw and come back in the change rooms, and not even that we weren’t happy but yeah business as usual, you know. The run we went on was incredible.
“I had a really good year, personally. And obviously we won. We won it all. We lost in round three, I think, and didn’t lose again. Probably one of the best year’s of my footballer life.”
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Aside from the one season together in Brisbane, Barbarouses also spent time with Postecoglou at Melbourne Victory.
So, what did he learn from the Aussie trailblazer, who has gone on to win titles with the Subway Socceroos, Yokohama F.Marinos in Japan and Scottish powerhouse Celtic?
“The reason he’s such a good coach is that he makes everything black and white, and he’s very clear with his messages,” Barbarouses said.
“It’s not like we were robots on the pitch, because we had freedom to move where we thought, but there were certain patterns and movements and things you needed to do, and if you didn’t do it, there was no point even knocking on his door to ask why you’re on the bench, because it’s there in the video.
“I was pretty young. I was honestly scared to make a mistake. He was in my ear all the time at training, Rado (Vidosic) I have to say, as well was on my case every single day, but with Ange just unbelievably clear messaging, a clear vision, a really good speaker as well. Knew what to say, when to say it and just got the best out of me by using my strengths that I didn’t even know I had probably at the time. That’s what I was saying earlier about our team, is he adapts his teams to what he’s got to begin with, and then he builds from there.
“The way he just moulded our team into what it was is just incredible.”
An ‘interesting’ Russian experience after trials in Italy and England
Barbarouses isn’t “bitter”, nor does he “regret anything”, as the New Zealand international reflected on his move to Russia 14 years ago.
He had just scored 12 goals for Brisbane in their Championship-winning season when he started receiving calls from his agent at the time.
There were trials at Italian club Torino, prior to their return to Serie A and Brighton and Hove Albion, who had just been promoted to the EFL Championship at the time. In the end, Barbarouses landed in the second tier of Russian football via Alania Vladikavkaz (now known as Spartak Vladikavkaz) despite warnings from Postecoglou.
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“It was interesting to say the least it was. It was a weird off-season, because we just won the the championship. If you think now I just turned 21, if a 21-year-old in the league scores 12 goals, they’re probably going to Bayern Munich or something,” he said.
“Not that I’m bitter or regret anything, but just remember getting calls from the agent at the time wanting to take me to trial here and trial there. I went to Torino and to Brighton for trials.
“I went to Torino first, and they were almost coming up to Serie A, and they had a few games left, and the coach looked stressed as anything, because they’re a big club. They want to get back up there. I just remember in in the four-v-fours or whatever they were doing, he had me on the side of the pitch because he wanted to get his team ready just for the weekend.
“He didn’t want to have a trialist. Then the director was in the stands screaming at him to put me on the the field for training. I finished that and after obviously it didn’t work out well. I finished that and the agent said we wanted you to go to Brighton. I said, after that, I’m not going. I don’t want to go there. I just want to go back home and get ready to play for Brisbane again.
“Anyway, they convinced me to go Brighton and Gus Poyet was the coach. They just got promoted, I think, into the championship. So I got there, and they’re just playing Shiva. And keepy-up pretty much because they got two games left and they’re already up. That didn’t go well. So I’ve gone back to Brisbane, and then he’s come up with Russia.
“In the meantime, Ange’s sort of telling me he thinks I need another year in the A-League and this and that. Where I ended up going to Russia, he was definitely right. If it was somewhere else, like maybe a Germany or Holland, might have been a great move at the time, but I took the plunge that the advice I got probably wasn’t great. Obviously there’s people looking after themselves.
“I got there and just straight away, it was very interesting. The coach was the chairman’s son and it was his first coaching job. The chairman is a legend of Russian football. So here the son is a coach. Is 32 or 33 years old.
“I started the first game was top of the table clash first and second scored the winner. Second game, I think we’re playing third or fourth place and I got dragged at half-time, just straight away from there, just in and out of the team, coming on at half-time, getting dragged at half-time a few times. I was looking for a move in January, but I ended up sticking it out.”
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‘Dream’ move to Greek giants
In the end, Barbarouses played 14 games for Vladikavkaz, scoring twice before landing a loan move to Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos in 2012-13.
He was desperate to get out of Russia and would have signed “anywhere” before Panathinaikos – a club supported by his entire family, came calling.
It was an unforgettable experience with the 20-time champions in Athens, where he was teammates with A-Leagues great Fornaroli.
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“I was with the national team in the off-season and then the agent called and said a team from Cyprus wanted to take me on loan,” Barbarouses reflected. “So I said yes straight away. He could have told me anywhere, I would have said yes. Then a day or two later said hold that thought, Panathinaikos want to take you. I said do everything you can to make it work.
“A dream come true for me, a dream move. Amazing experience for me. My family all support Panathinaikos, so to be able to play for them, to play in the in the derby against Olympiacos at their ground, it was something I’ll never forget. Honestly wish I could have grafted a bit more knowing what I know now, and just to realize the unbelievable experience and moment that was. We were in the Europa League. We did okay in the league.
“They wanted me to stay in the end. They asked me, because they had problems with payments and stuff like that as you can imagine, they asked me to drop my wages by about 25%. I said absolutely I will because I want to stay.
“But my Russian club wanted a transfer fee out of them, and like I said, they were six, seven, eighth months behind paying my wages already so that wasn’t happening. They weren’t paying any transfer fees at the time.
“I was actually in Athens in the off-season for 10 weeks, waiting for that to hopefully eventuate. It didn’t and I just knew there’s no way I wanted to go back to our Russian club. So Victory and Ange came knocking again.”
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Chiefy, his goal and the future: ‘It’ll probably feel the best’
Since Italiano’s appointment in 2023-24, only Western United’s Hiroshi Ibusuki (20), reigning Golden Boot winner and Socceroo Adam Taggart (23) and Sydney FC’s Joe Lolley (20) have scored more A-Leagues goals than Barbarouses.
Barbarouses has clearly benefited from Italiano’s promotion from his role as assistant in Wellington and it is showing on the pitch.
“You get a good glimpse to what he’s like,” Barbarouses said when asked about second-year head coach Italiano. “I think Chief lives and breathes football. He’s thinking about football so much in the day to day that he always thinks of different ways to approach every single game.
“To be fair, most of the time it works, and that’s a sign of a good coach. You can exploit where teams have deficiencies or where we can use our strength. It’s honestly opened my eyes a little bit as well. I’ve worked with some top coaches as well, and everyone’s taught me something different.
“This sort of approach has taught me something as well, that you don’t need to be set in a formation or a way of playing. You have your principles, but you can approach every game differently. I can’t say which one is best, because, like I said, with Ange, with Musky (Kevin Muscat), is the same way, same way every single week and that worked. Then Chiefy’s approach was very different, and that worked too last last year.
“It just shows that there’s different ways to approach football, and nobody’s wrong or right. But also shows that he loves the game and we’ll come in on a Wednesday and set up that we’re playing in a back five, and then Thursday we’ll be in a back four, and then Friday will be in a back five again. So what it tells me is that he never switches off and I think that’s you need that passion as a coach and to be a good coach as well.”
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His form is not waning under the watchful eye of Italiano as he eyes next year’s World Cup and as it stands, Barbarouses is refusing to put a timeframe on his career.
“The World Cup is the goal but that’s one-and-a-half seasons away. I don’t want to put a limit on my career because I know once it’s done, it’s done,” he said. “In the same sort of breath, I don’t want to stick around until the point, not that I’m not longer wanted but I’m not getting the most out of myself.
“I always think as well, another year after the World Cup, will take me to being a pro for 20 years. That’s a good number to hit.
“I see guys like Ninko (Ninkovic) and Castro. I was with Ninko for three years. He really looked after himself and his body, and I think he could probably still play today.
“I’ll keep going until it doesn’t make sense but with football, you can’t plan too far ahead.”
In the meantime, Barbarouses is hellbent on trying to lead the Phoenix to their first ever Championship.
“The fact that it’s never been done before would make it special, but that would close off like an unbelievable chapter here for me,” he said. “I know how difficult it is. I know how difficult it is to win it at the so called big clubs too. So I really know how hard it is and things need to align. But I think my experience can help the team too.
“I think it’ll probably feel the best out of any of the championships or any silverware that I’d won anywhere else. I’m doing everything I can to try and make it happen. So I’d love nothing more.”
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