So what advice would you give yourself looking back at how far you've come?

Yeah, from what I remember at eight years old, I remember quite vividly telling my dad, you know, watching New Zealand at the World Cup and telling him I want to be there one day.

and you know i was fortunate enough to have an amazing dad and he said i'll help you son like we'll do everything we can to achieve your dream um so he you know dedicated you know 10 years him and my mum um to helping me achieve that dream and that was driving me at early mornings and and late nights and they were paving the path for me to be in the position that i am now But if there was one advice I would say would be first, listen to your parents always.

And I've always talked about sacrifice.

You know, devoting yourself to the sport that you love, which is for me football.

It doesn't have to be football.

It can also be rugby or tennis or cricket.

So what advice would you impart to the parents out there of the young kids coming through?

But what is the aim for a game like Haiti in two or three days from now?

Yeah, like you said, I think meaningful minutes is definitely crucial in this stage of the journey of our World Cup.

We've had players who are coming back into the squad after a long time absence, so winning them back into football with us and getting their minutes back up to track.

So that's definitely probably the most crucial part of these games.

Obviously, we've got now two games before our first World Cup, So we're obviously looking to put in a really good performance, not only for us, but all our fans around the world.

So, yeah, we definitely want to go in with a bang on our first game and, you know, get a win as well.

Have you allowed yourself to visualise what that's going to be like?

Yeah, it gives me goosebumps, Jason, talking about it.

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

Um, my dad, he's from Serbia, so from Europe, and, uh, he was a big, big fan of football.

Um, so, you know, when he had his son, uh me, he, he really wanted me to, to, to get into football.

Um, so he enrolled me straight away, and um, slowly got into to football more seriously and, uh, got into an academy in Wellington-

Just for any young kids listening in the car and to our, you know, our people that listen to the poddy on the way to work and that, in the car on the way to school, what's your kind of message for them that, you know, they wanna make it in the space, you know, around, I don't know, working hard or that it's possible? Like, any message for them?

Yeah, definitely.

I think looking back at my experience was sacrifice was, was the number one thing.