{"id":492453,"date":"2026-06-24T01:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T01:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492453\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T01:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T01:06:08","slug":"auckland-fc-all-whites-midfielder-lachlan-bayliss-joins-a-league-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492453\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland FC: All Whites midfielder Lachlan Bayliss joins A-League champions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere\u2019s no better time to be a New Zealand footballer and I want to bring that energy to Auckland FC. I\u2019ve seen what this club means to the fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club has ambition, and the fans are incredible. I\u2019ve experienced that atmosphere as an opponent, and it\u2019s something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bayliss has played the last three seasons at the Jets, making 71 appearances across all competitions. He was born in Darwin and qualifies for New Zealand through his Kiwi father.<\/p>\n

Auckland FC director of football Terry McFlynn said they have been targeting Bayliss for some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s energetic, versatile and has the technical quality to hurt teams going forward,\u201d McFlynn said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWinning the Premiership and the Cup with Newcastle shows he knows what it takes to win, we\u2019re delighted to have him in Auckland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bayliss is the first new recruit to join Auckland, although they have re-signed goalkeeper Michael Woud and midfielder Cam Howieson<\/a>, who scored the lone goal in the grand final win over Sydney FC.<\/p>\n

\"LachlanLachlan Bayliss made his All Whites debut against Finland in March. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

However, the club has already had several high-profile departures including defender Dan Hall, who is expected to sign with a club in Asia, striker Guillermo May<\/a>, Auckland\u2019s all-time leading scorer, and Jesse Randall <\/a>whose move to the Scottish Premiership with Dundee United was confirmed during the season.<\/p>\n

The futures of Felipe Gallegos and vice-captain Jake Brimmer are also up in the air while young trio Adama Coulibaly, Finn McKenlay and Jimmy Hilton have also moved on, with the latter signing with Macarthur FC.<\/p>\n

Captain Hiroki Sakai,<\/a> Francis de Vries<\/a> and Callan Elliot had signed contract extensions during the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

Auckland is also on the search for a new head coach and assistant with Steve Corica<\/a> and Danny Hay signing with top-flight Japanese club Yokohama F. Marinos.<\/p>\n

Goalkeeping coach Jonathan Gould has also left, returning to England to link up with National League side Forest Green Rovers.<\/p>\n

Bayliss will join Auckland after the World Cup, with the team expected to begin training early next month.<\/p>\n

Auckland FC are confident a new coaching team will be in place ahead of the team\u2019s fixture against Tottenham Hotspur on July 26.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 2026-27 A-League season kicks off on October 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere\u2019s no better time to be a New Zealand footballer and I want to bring that energy to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[125510,3017,27500,5263,51,246728,6726,1738,31100,26845,83138,1888,70487,6371,18917,116640,111,139,69,26846,105580,48613,213,5264],"class_list":["post-492453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-125510","tag-ahead","tag-aleague","tag-all","tag-auckland","tag-bayliss","tag-become","tag-campaign","tag-champions","tag-fc","tag-fcs","tag-first","tag-joining","tag-joins","tag-lachlan","tag-midfielder","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offseason","tag-reigning","tag-signing","tag-sports","tag-whites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}