The Wellington Phoenix are thrilled to be the first club to give Dan Edwards the chance to play professional football.
The Phoenix have signed the left-sided Kiwi fullback for the upcoming Isuzu UTE A-League season.
Edwards, 27, has played semi-professionally in Melbourne for the past five seasons and joins the Nix from National League Leagues (NPL) Victoria premiers Avondale FC.
As well as finishing four points clear of Australia Cup finalists Heidelberg United in NPL Victoria, Avondale themselves reached the semi-finals of the Cup.
Edwards was a regular in the premiers’ starting XI at either left back or deputising at centre back, while holding down a fulltime job.
Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano has been tracking Edwards for the past two years and was in the stands for Avondale’s match against Melbourne Knights at the end of May.
“When the A-League season finished I went to see Dan play live,” Italiano said. “I wanted to get a good feel for him, and I was impressed with what I saw.
“I thought he was a very tidy player with the ball and off the ball. Defensively he’s very solid.
“Dan played more as a left back for Avondale but I watched him play at Port Melbourne as a wing back and that’s where I see him playing for us.
“He’s a good character as well which is very important.”
Dan Edwards had all but given up playing football professionally before hearing about the interest from the Phoenix.
“It wasn’t at the forefront of where I was in life,” Edwards said. “I was at the point where I needed to start looking at trying to get a house or getting a unit somewhere and then the second you get a call and you’re told there’s a chance it’s right back at the front of mind again.
“I spoke to my family and my partner and they all said the same thing ‘not many people get the chance to live out their childhood dream so you’ve got to take it’ and I completely agreed.
“Being 27 and quitting your fulltime job to become a fulltime footy player is special.
“It’s something you dream about since you’re five or six-years-old. It’s crazy to think that at 27 now I get the chance to live that.”
Edwards credits the players and coaches at Avondale FC for “my best year in terms of consistent performances” and believes he’s lucky Italiano chose that game against Melbourne Knights to watch him play.
“I was covering playing centre back for a good few weeks and at halftime the coach made a change and put me back out to fullback, and I had a pretty solid second half.
“After the game the president of Avondale told me Chiefy was watching, and I thought it wasn’t a bad game for him to come and watch. I scored a goal and assisted another, so I was pretty happy. “
He grew up on the Whangaparāoa peninsula north of Auckland, around the corner from Phoenix defender Corban Piper, and played his junior football at Hibiscus Coast, Forrest Hill Milford and Birkenhead United before heading to Marshall University in West Virginia in 2017.
He played three years for the Thundering Herd and studied accounting before the Covid pandemic cut short his time in the U.S.A.
After a short stint with Eastern Suburbs in Auckland, Edwards moved to Melbourne in 2021 and has played for Port Melbourne and Avondale FC since while working in freight forwarding.
He has vowed to bring his strong work ethic to the Phoenix.
“I’m used to getting up and down all day so my engine is one of my best qualities.
“Playing out wide I can deliver a nice ball when I need to, and every game I just leave it all out on the field. I won’t give anything less than 100%.”
Dan Edwards will wear the no. 12 shirt for the Wellington Phoenix and is the 23rd men’s player the club has contracted for the 2025-26 Isuzu UTE A-League season.
