Dream comes true for young Phoenix fan

Hamilton teenager Marco Rojas has gone from avid Wellington Phoenix fan to player after signing with the club at the weekend.

New Zealand's only professional soccer team were due to announce signing the fleet-of-foot 17-year-old their third under-21 player today.

Rojas watched as many Phoenix games as he could over the last three years and said joining the A-League club he liked so much was "a dream come true".

Neither Rojas nor the club would confirm the length of the contract, understood to be for two years and worth a minimum of A$40,000 ($NZ49,970) a year.

"I'm stoked," Rojas said yesterday. "I've wanted to be a professional footballer all my life and now it's come true, it's really exciting."

The Fraser High, Hamilton Wanderers and Waikato FC player impressed assistant coaches Luciano Trani and Jonathan Gould when he made two trips to the club as part of a promotion by the Phoenix supporters' club, the Yellow Fever.

"I'm very thankful to the Yellow Fever," Rojas said.

At that stage, he hadn't received the tick of approval from head coach Ricki Herbert, who was in South Africa with the All Whites' Confederations Cup campaign. But he has now.

Herbert watched Rojas last weekend when the Phoenix played the Melbourne Victory in Queenstown.

"His time on the park was effective," Herbert said. "He's a very technical player and did well."

Rojas played on the left initially before moving to an attacking midfield role behind one of the club's other underage players, Costa Barbarouses.

Herbert said a phone call from former Waikato FC assistant coach and current Wanderers coach Mark Cossey brought Rojas' abilities to his attention.

A-League rules state the club had to sign a third under-21 player, but Rojas was given no special treatment because he was a New Zealander.

Herbert said the club wanted the best player available, and it was "just a nice bonus he's a Kiwi".

Herbert said Rojas would join the team in Christchurch this weekend, travel to China for their pre-season tour, then to Australia for their second pre-season A-League game before the season opener on August 9.

Herbert said because Rojas was so young, his learning and development were important to the club and needed to be handled carefully.

"We have to take into consideration where he's come from [New Zealand Football Championship], because that's important in terms of experience." Rojas is the second Waikato teenager to pick up a professional contract after Chris Wood signed a deal with English Championship side West Bromwich Albion at the end of May.

- © Fairfax NZ News