The Wellington Phoenix have significantly bolstered the men’s backline for the 2025-26 Isuzu UTE A-League.
The Phoenix have signed imposing Canadian centre back Manjrekar James as the team’s fifth and final visa player for the upcoming season.
James, who stands 1.93m tall, has been a professional for 13 years in Europe, North America and Central America and has won titles in Denmark, Canada and Costa Rica, most recently with LD Alajuelense.
The 32-year-old has also played 17 times for Canada at senior level since making his full international debut in 2015.
Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano says James is a physically dominant centre back.
“Manjrekar fits the profile of the defender that I’ve been wanting to recruit,” Italiano said.
“He’s aggressive, he’s strong, he’s very good with the ball, he has good experience across a number of leagues around the world and he’s an international.
“Manjrekar’s got all the attributes I want from a centre back. He’s very good man-to-man, very mobile, quick and makes very good decisions in very hard situations.
“He’s also very good in the air and always on the front foot so I think stylistically and in terms of aggression he’ll give us an edge.
“He’s a nice guy as well and I think he’ll fit in really well with the group.”
Manjrekar James will join the squad once he obtains his New Zealand work visa and he can’t wait to play for the Phoenix.
“When I heard Wellington was interested I messaged my agent really quickly,” James said.
“I was very, very excited.
“One of my old teammates at Midtjylland, Bozhidar Kraev, used to play for Wellington so I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Phoenix and the A-League.
“And I also spoke to one of my friends, Awer Mabil (Socceroos forward), and he told me very good things about the A-League so I was very open to the opportunity.”
He was convinced about the move once he talked to Italiano.
“How he wants to play is ideal because that’s exactly how I want to play as well.
“He told me the team wants to be a possession dominating team and I’m a centre back that wants to keep the ball.
“He also said the team likes to press and keep a high line and that’s something that I really want to do as well so it sounds like a great, great fit for me.”
James was born on the small Caribbean island of Dominica in a cricket-mad family and was named after former Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar.
His family moved to Canada when he was eight and he started playing football in North York, Ontario a year later.
James represented Canada at both under-20 and under-23 level before making his senior bow in 2015.
His last international appearance was in 2020, but he’s hoping to force his way back into the Canadian squad.
“My goal is to go to Wellington, perform very well and hopefully I’ll have a chance to be called up.”
Manjrekar James will wear the no. 4 shirt for the Wellington Phoenix with the club now having 22 men’s players contracted for the 2025-26 A-League season.
