{"id":537249,"date":"2026-07-21T17:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/537249\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T17:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T17:57:10","slug":"a-league-champion-louis-verstraete-is-leaving-auckland-fc-to-return-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/537249\/","title":{"rendered":"A-League champion Louis Verstraete is leaving Auckland FC to return home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lRosKcBdZHd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI have enjoyed my time here in Auckland; the fans, coaches and my teammates welcomed me with open arms,\u201d Verstraete said.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Verstraete, awarded the club\u2019s MVP last season, was part of the PFA Team of the Season. Photo \/ Photosport\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Verstraete, awarded the club\u2019s MVP last season, was part of the PFA Team of the Season. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n<p class=\"lRosKcBdZHd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019m incredibly sad to leave, but some things in life are sadly bigger than football.<\/p>\n<p class=\"lRosKcBdZHd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cBeing involved in the first game in a club\u2019s history was special for me, and adding two trophies along with it has made my time in Auckland an experience I will never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"lRosKcBdZHd\" style=\"display:none\">Auckland FC director of football Terry McFlynn said Verstraete had been \u201cstandout\u201d in the middle of the park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"lRosKcBdZHd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWhile it\u2019s disappointing to lose Louis, we fully understand his family situation, and we wish him all the very best for the future. Louis will forever be a massive part of our club\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"lRosKcBdZHd\" style=\"display:none\">Despite assurances a new coach would be in place for Sunday\u2019s game against English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur at Eden Park, the club said on Tuesday, when they announced Verstraete\u2019s departure, they did not have news on any appointment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI have enjoyed my time here in Auckland; the fans, coaches and my teammates welcomed me with open&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[27500,51,6028,26845,1345,185,2845,22050,111,139,69,154770,1527,2022,213,61,264651],"class_list":["post-537249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-aleague","tag-auckland","tag-champion","tag-fc","tag-home","tag-is","tag-leaving","tag-louis","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reporters","tag-return","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-to","tag-verstraete"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537249","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=537249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}