{"id":730580,"date":"2026-06-11T22:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730580\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T22:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:52:13","slug":"nix-re-sign-football-ferns-keeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730580\/","title":{"rendered":"Nix re-sign Football Ferns ‘keeper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wellington Phoenix are delighted to have kept hold of another key member of the women\u2019s history-making side.<\/p>\n

The Phoenix have re-signed Football Ferns goalkeeper Victoria Esson for the 2026-27 Ninja A-League.<\/p>\n

Esson started 22 of the team\u2019s 23 matches in her maiden season in Wellington, including last month\u2019s grand final, and kept eight clean sheets, twice as many as any other Nix \u2018keeper in the team\u2019s five-year history.<\/p>\n

She is already the 13th women\u2019s player on the club\u2019s books for next season.<\/p>\n

Phoenix head coach Bev Priestman says it was a priority to extend Esson\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted to re-sign someone of Vic\u2019s calibre with the leadership and experience she brings to the team,\u201d Priestman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer experience and leadership really shone through in big moments and she made some critical saves for the team, including in the away leg of the semi-final against the Brisbane Roar.<\/p>\n

\u201cVic kept us in the semi-final and gave us the opportunity to go enjoy an incredible moment with the fans at Porirua Park and create history by qualifying for the grand final.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has been part of the leadership group this season and a big contributor to the team so I can\u2019t wait to have her back next season when the standards will need to go up again for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Victoria Esson gives instructions to her teammates during the Ninja A-League semi-final second leg at Porirua Park. Photo: Cam McIntosh\/Photomac.<\/p>\n

Victoria Esson says it was an easy decision to re-sign with the Phoenix as she feels she has unfinished business in Wellington.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get that close, you get a taste of it and you want more,\u201d Esson said. \u201cWe came second in the league and second in the finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to work really hard to get ourselves into a position where we\u2019re able to compete for the title again, and it won\u2019t be easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think that\u2019s achievable with the squad we\u2019ve retained and the coaching staff we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Victoria Esson makes a save during a Wellington Phoenix training session at NZCIS. Photo: Cam McIntosh\/Photomac.<\/p>\n

Esson also \u201creally enjoyed being back in New Zealand and being around Kiwis again\u201d after seven seasons in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Kiwis, I love New Zealand and the nature is beautiful. We have an amazing training facility out in the hills.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it was pretty grounding being back in New Zealand. I was able to see my family a lot more than I have in the last few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of travel to Australia playing for the Phoenix, but it\u2019s what we signed up for playing for this team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to spend another year back near my family and friends while playing the sport that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Victoria Esson poses for a photo with a young fan after a Ninja A-League match at Hnry Stadium. Photo: Cam McIntosh\/Photomac<\/p>\n

And she hopes the fans that turned out in record numbers last season keep supporting the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to the fans who braved all the weather, including the horizontal rain in February, and we\u2019d love for you to come back next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved playing at Porirua Park. It\u2019s amazing to play in the big stadiums but Porirua Park has that family feel to it and we can make it our own and make it hostile for other teams to come to.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great signing all of the autographs for the kids after the game and seeing all the smiles on their faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic opportunity to showcase football in Wellington and across New Zealand and I look forward to getting involved in that again next season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wellington Phoenix are delighted to have kept hold of another key member of the women\u2019s history-making side.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-730580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}