In-form Barbarouses keen to extend Wellington stay
Kosta Barbarouses wants to stay at Wellington Phoenix next season after rediscovering his best form at his hometown A-League Men club.
The 33-year-old has catapulted into contention for the Johnny Warren Medal after scoring eight goals in his past five matches to lead the Phoenix back to the top of the table.
They host second-place Melbourne Victory – one of Barbarouses’ former clubs – in a top-of-the-table clash at Sky Stadium tomorrow night.
Barbarouses is off-contract at the end of the current campaign and his sensational form has made him a prime target for new Auckland coach Steve Corica.
But Barbarouses, who played under Corica at Sydney FC, said his preference was to stay in Wellington for the foreseeable future, driven by a goal to win a championship with his hometown club.
“It’s still very early days and there’s no real rush but we both want to have a chat and see where we can go with it,” Barbarouses said.
“The way things are going, I want to keep it going this season and we’ll see if we can make it work past that, but initial talks have started, yeah.
“I’d love to [stay] if we can make it work. Obviously there’s a few factors but I’m from here and things are going amazing on the field and off it.
“I’m not going to speculate on any other teams out of respect for the Phoenix but I said to them I’ll speak to them before I speak to anyone else.”
Barbarouses has spent the bulk of his career in the A-League and said he had no plans to try his luck overseas again after an “eye-opening” experience in Russia 12 years ago.
Barbarouses witnessed a kidnapping after a match when he was in Russia playing for Alania Vladikavkaz, which left him shaken.
A dream loan to Greek giants Panathinaikos gave him the perfect out, but the club he supported as a boy could not afford to sign him on a permanent contract and
he has been back in the A-League ever since.
“I had a few offers in Holland and Germany but I thought to myself that I’m here [at the top] at this level, have got a good reputation, am in a good place, in a good part of the world, why would I want to go somewhere else and start down there
[at the bottom]?
“At times in your career you have to play, not where you’re comfortable but where you know you can get the best out of yourself, and I never felt like I wanted to restart.”
Barbarouses is into his third stint at the Phoenix but this has easily been his most productive, scoring more goals this season than in his previous two stints combined.
“The first time I was very young and played only 15 games, mainly off the bench.
“The second stint went OK, we had a great team and probably let ourselves down.
“The way things are going now, this is definitely top of the pile but it means nothing until we get to the business end and do the business.”
Barbarouses will have a shot at history tomorrow. No Phoenix player has ever scored in six consecutive matches.
He tied the record held by Oskar Zawada and Tomer Hemed when he bagged a brace in the Phoenix’s seven-goal thriller against Perth Glory last Sunday.
Barbarouses said he had set himself the target of scoring 10 goals in 2023-24 but he should smash that with more than half the season to go.
“Double is always the target I set for myself in a season,” he said. “With my ability and my position, not as the focal point of the attack, it’s a realistic target and from there you want to push as many as you can.”