The Wellington Phoenix are thrilled to announce Sarpreet Singh has returned to the club to help the team’s push for its maiden major trophy.
The 26-cap All White has signed with the Phoenix for the remainder of the 2025-26 Isuzu UTE A-League season on loan from Bačka Topola in the Serbian SuperLiga.
Singh was unveiled to the Yellow Fever at Sky Stadium prior to kick-off in the men’s Waitangi Day match against Melbourne Victory.
It’s a homecoming for the attacking midfielder, who came through the Phoenix academy and went on to make 40 first team appearances for the Nix, scoring nine goals and assisting eight others, before moving to Bayern Munich in 2019 for what was then a club record fee.
“I’m very happy to be back,” Singh said. “The club means a lot to me, and I can’t wait to get started and meet everyone.
“The most important thing for me is to be in an environment where I’m enjoying it, having fun and being able just be free on the field.
“That’s when I play my best football and believe Wellington provides the best environment for that for me.
“The Phoenix have also made some good signings, and the club is really pushing hard to get to the finals.
“I feel like the group of players that have been put together now can do something special and I want to be part of that.”
Singh has played professionally in Germany, Portugal and Serbia over the past six and a half seasons.
“I feel like I left as a boy and I’m returning as a more mature player.
“Throughout those years I’ve learnt a lot. I’ve had plenty of highs and a lot of lows as well.
“I’ve had to deal with many setbacks throughout my career, and I feel like with age, time and experience I’ve learnt a lot and I think I’m in a very good headspace and physically I’m very good as well.
“I feel like I’m a good age, I feel ready and I feel like my best years are still ahead of me.”
Injury forced Singh to miss the All Whites’ 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign, but he played a key role in their qualification for this year’s finals in North America and started all 10 of New Zealand’s internationals in 2025.
“I’m feeling good. I’ve played a decent amount of minutes in the first half of the season and now I’m coming into an environment that I feel is perfect to take the next step, push on and be an even better player.
“There’s obviously a World Cup coming up and for me to give myself the best opportunity to be part of the squad I think I need to be playing minutes often and I think the Phoenix can also help with that.”
Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano jumped at the opportunity to sign Singh, having long been an admirer of him.
“We were very close to signing Sarpreet at the beginning of the season and he was going to be a player that I was going to try to build a team around,” Italiano said.
“When he reached out about a loan move on Monday morning, I spoke to [director of football] Shaun Gill, by the afternoon we had approval from the football committee and we were able to get it done on Tuesday morning.
“He’s very creative, he likes to dribble and he’s a very smart player. Sarpreet’s also very experienced having played in Germany, Portugal and now Serbia.
“He loves to counter press too, which is something we do quite well so he’s going to fit in very well stylistically.
“Having a player like Sarpreet for the business end of the season could be a deciding factor in whether we make the finals or not.”
Sarpreet Singh will wear the no. 9 shirt for the Wellington Phoenix, half of the number he used to wear for club during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.
