“What a night.”
Barbarouses responded positively to the post in the comments.
All Whites forward Kosta Barbarouses swapped shirts with a Welsh content creator after New Zealand’s draw with Iran at the 2026 Fifa World Cup. Photo / @cymrogav
“What a guy, Welsh shirt going straight into the collection,” the All White responded.
Murphy told the BBC that Barbarouses had been watching his YouTube channel for about a decade.
“He scored the goal that got New Zealand into the World Cup,” he said.
“I saw him a couple of years ago on my Instagram, and we were sending messages back and forth.
“And he said ‘if Wales qualifies, we’ll be in the same area at the same time, and I can sort you out with tickets’.
“When we didn’t make it, he didn’t think I would come – ‘well you obviously don’t know me because I am still coming,’ I said.”
Murphy said the striker made a quick dash into the changing rooms to deliver him an All Whites jersey.
“It was bonkers at the end.
“He ran all the way to the changing rooms to bring his shirt back to me, and we swapped shirts.
“I took one of my favourite Wales shirts, so now there’s a striker in New Zealand squad with a Wales Umbro shirt from the ′90s.
“My girlfriend turned to me and said ‘what’s going on?’
“She’s only been to one football match before – Leyton Orient v Bolton Wanderers and now Iran v New Zealand.
“She asked ‘is this what football’s always like?’”
The 36-year-old Barbarouses is playing at his first World Cup after not being selected in the squad for the 2010 tournament.
He didn’t feature in New Zealand’s 2-2 draw with Iran, but said before the tournament he was ready to support captain Chris Wood as best he could.
“I’d love to see, like everyone in our country would, Chris Wood be there and scoring the goals for us and I’ll be ready to support him and the team whether that’s starting, coming on for 45 minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes, I’ll be ready and I’ll be ready to perform,” Barbarouses said.
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