Football star Nelsen scores with home crowd

Last updated 05:00 19/05/2010

Hamish Coleman-Ross

All Whites Captain Ryan Nelsen was interviewed by Paul Thompson in front of a crowd of hundreds at Wellington's Duxton Hotel last night about his new book and the upcoming FIFA world cup.

ANDREW GORRIE/The Dominion Post

WIDE APPEAL: All White Ryan Nelsen at the Duxton Hotel as part of The Dominion Post's Write Stuff series.

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Despite earning the big bucks with the Blackburn Rovers, football star Ryan Nelsen says he would love to play for the Wellington Phoenix.

But he joked that he probably would not make the cut because "they've got quite a few good defenders in the team".

More than 450 people, including many fathers and sons, cheered and clapped for the All Whites captain as he stepped on to the stage at Wellington's Duxton Hotel last night.

Promoting his new book Road to the World Cup, he was talking to Fairfax Media group executive editor Paul Thompson as part of The Dominion Post-sponsored Write Stuff authors series.

Nelsen, who has played the game since the age of five, led the All Whites to victory over Bahrain in Wellington in November, which won them a place at the Fifa World Cup finals in South Africa next month. He said he had been more worried about the earlier match against Bahrain on their home turf.

"I've never screamed so much as captain. I knew if we got back to Wellington ... we'd get through."

He stood by his promise to pull out of the World Cup, which starts next month, if his pregnant wife gave birth, but advised the Kiwis to go in knowing they would win.

"If you're there for the experience, you can stay in New Zealand.

"When you start thinking like that you've failed."

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