Wellington Phoenix reserves captain Xuan Loke has signed his first professional contract with the Isuzu UTE A-League club, putting pen to paper on a two-and-a-half-year contract.
Loke, 19, is the fourth player from Wellington’s academy to join the senior squad this year alone.
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The teenage fullback and New Zealand U-19 international debuted for the ‘Nix in the 2024 Australia Cup campaign and now, has ticked off the next significant achievement in his prospering career with a senior deal under head coach Giancarlo Italiano.
Loke’s rise to the Phoenix first team is a remarkable story inspired by a special family bond.
Born in Dunedin, Loke began his football journey at the age of five. To help develop his skills, Loke’s father, Kin, built a DIY-version of Borussia Dortmund’s ‘Footbonaut’ machine in the garage of his house; it cost Kin just $36 dollars to install and became an important tool in Loke’s upbringing.
At Dortmund, the Footbonaut machine is a multi-million dollar machine made up of a series of cubes that flash green to determine where a player passes the ball once gathering possession; the machine was designed to encourage players to scan over both shoulders and quickly determine where to shift the ball when out on the pitch looking for space to exploit.
Loke’s father Kim’s homemade setup featured a series of LED lights on the walls of his garage.
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Kin Loke relocated from Dunedin to Wellington to help his son’s football dream become a reality, just two months after his wife passed away from breast cancer when Xuan was just 12 years old.
“It was the biggest challenge of my life,” said Loke, reflecting on the move to Wellington so soon after his mother passed.
“My dad and I have grown together through that, which has been great. I owe a lot to him and all I want to say is thank you.”
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After signing his first professional contract, Loke highlighted the impact his father has had on his development into a rising talent in New Zealand football.
“My dad’s been amazing. He’s been my biggest supporter and biggest influence in my life,” Loke said.
“It was a big move for us. He left his job and his friends. For him to make that sacrifice for me; I wouldn’t be here without him.”
Loke joined the Wellington Phoenix academy in 2022 and debuted for the club’s reserves side in 2023. This year, he started 16 of 18 matches as reserves captain in New Zealand’s Central League, and excelled as a goalscoring rightback.
With the first one-and-a-half years of his contract under scholarship terms, Loke will hope to follow in the footsteps of several former Phoenix academy players who have become consistent first team members at the club in recent years.
Head coach Italiano heaped praise on the 19-year-old defender for his performances with the reserves and expressed his excitement at being the man in charge of Loke’s development over the course of his first professional contract in the years ahead.
“From when I first saw Xuan to now there’s been a drastic improvement,” Italiano said. “Greeny (reserves head coach Chris Greenacre) has obviously done a good job with him at the academy and got him up to a really good standard.
“Since he’s been in the first team environment he’s shown he’s very dedicated and has great focus.
“Xuan took a couple of knocks at training but has shown a lot of resilience and bounced back straight away.
“He can play fullback or as a wingback, but he’s the sort of player you sign in one position but because they work hard they can apply themselves in another couple of positions.
“Xuan’s got a really good mindset so I’m really looking forward to working with him over the next couple of years.”
Loke and the Phoenix are next in action against Western Sydney Wanderers at CommBank Stadium on Sunday afternoon, in Round 9 of the 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League season.
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