Chris Wood Leads New Zealand Football at World Cup 2023

Chris Wood will walk into this World Cup as the face of New Zealand football and the spearhead of its biggest gamble in a generation.

At 32, the Nottingham Forest striker leads the lowest-ranked side in the tournament, a team parked at 85th in the FIFA rankings and carrying the scars of campaigns that never quite caught fire. Yet he also carries something else: history, experience, and a belief that this version of the All Whites is built to do more than simply make up the numbers in Group G.

Wood’s second act on the biggest stage

The last time New Zealand were at a World Cup, in South Africa in 2010, Wood was the kid off the bench. Three substitute appearances, no wins, but no defeats either – a stubborn, unbeaten run built on three draws against Italy, Slovakia and Paraguay that still sits proudly in the country’s football folklore.

Sixteen years on, the story feels very different.

"It's been a long time, 16 years, since we've been in the World Cup," Wood said via video link at the squad announcement in Auckland. "I can't wait to share the moment with this team and hopefully create some history. I hope that we can do everybody proud and show the world what we're capable of."

This time, he arrives as captain, talisman and record-breaking marksman: 45 goals in 88 internationals, the reference point for everything New Zealand do in the final third.

He also arrives after a race against time.

A knee injury wrecked most of his Premier League season with Forest and cast doubt over his World Cup hopes. He only returned to action a month ago, but coach Darren Bazeley has no hesitation. If New Zealand are to trouble Iran, Egypt and Belgium in a demanding Group G, Wood must be at the heart of it.

A squad built on miles, grit and a touch of guile

Bazeley’s 26-man squad is a blend of hardened travellers, European-based technicians and A-League regulars who have grown used to long flights and longer odds.

Ten players come from the Australian A-League, eight of them from the country’s two domestic clubs, Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix. Around them sits a spine drawn from Europe: midfielders Joe Bell (Viking FK), Marko Stamenic (Swansea City), Matt Garbett (Peterborough United) and Ryan Thomas (PEC Zwolle) are all earmarked as key pieces alongside Wood.

Bazeley has made one selection that jumps off the page.

Tommy Smith, the veteran defender who started all three matches at the 2010 World Cup, is back. At 36, he now plies his trade in the fifth tier of English football with Braintree Town, far from the glare of the Premier League or major European leagues. On paper, it looks a romantic call. Bazeley insists it is a pragmatic one.

"With a squad of 26, not everybody is going to play," the coach said. "So we added Tommy because his leadership is great. He's going to be so important for the players keeping everybody on track. We'll lean on him a lot."

Smith’s inclusion underlines the tone of this campaign. New Zealand know they cannot outspend or outglamour their opponents. What they can do is lean on experience, organisation and a dressing room that has lived the grind of qualifying out of Oceania and chasing careers across continents.

From Spain to South Africa to North America

New Zealand’s World Cup story has always been written from the margins.

In 1982, on debut in Spain, they lost all three group matches. The gap to the elite looked enormous. By 2010, the gap had narrowed. Ricki Herbert’s side left South Africa as the only unbeaten team in the tournament, their three draws a badge of honour even as they fell short of the knockout rounds.

This generation wants to go one step further.

Qualification came in March, via the familiar route of the Oceania series. The real test starts now, across the vast distances of the United States and Canada.

Iran await first in Los Angeles on June 15, a meeting that will set the tone for everything that follows. Then come Egypt on June 22 and Belgium on June 27, both in Vancouver. It is a group laced with technical quality and heavyweight pedigree. There will be no hiding place.

Leaders, lieutenants and the supporting cast

Bazeley knows Wood cannot carry this alone.

Liberato Cacace, now at Wrexham, offers thrust from full-back. Michael Boxall (Minnesota United) and Nando Pijnaker (Auckland FC) bring stability at the back, with young defenders like Tyler Bindon (Nottingham Forest) and Finn Surman (Portland Timbers) pushing through.

In midfield, Bell’s discipline, Stamenic’s range of passing, Garbett’s energy and Thomas’s craft form the core. Around them, Sarpreet Singh and Alex Rufer add guile and grit for Wellington Phoenix, while Ben Old’s move to Saint-Etienne hints at a player on the rise.

Up front, Kosta Barbarouses, Elijah Just, Ben Waine, Callum McCowatt and Jesse Randall provide options around Wood, from tireless pressing to penalty-box instincts.

It is not a squad that will scare opponents on reputation alone. It is one that has been built to be awkward, organised and relentlessly committed.

The 26 men chasing history

New Zealand’s World Cup squad in full:

• Goalkeepers: Max Crocombe (Millwall), Alex Paulsen (Lechia Gdansk), Michael Woud (Auckland FC)
• Defenders: Tyler Bindon (Nottingham Forest), Michael Boxall (Minnesota United), Liberato Cacace (Wrexham), Francis de Vries (Auckland FC), Callan Elliot (Auckland FC), Tim Payne (Wellington Phoenix), Nando Pijnaker (Auckland FC), Tommy Smith (Braintree Town), Finn Surman (Portland Timbers)
• Midfielders: Lachlan Bayliss (Newcastle Jets), Joe Bell (Viking FK), Matt Garbett (Peterborough United), Ben Old (Saint-Etienne), Alex Rufer (Wellington Phoenix), Sarpreet Singh (Wellington Phoenix), Marko Stamenic (Swansea City), Ryan Thomas (PEC Zwolle)
• Forwards: Kosta Barbarouses (Western Sydney Wanderers), Elijah Just (Motherwell), Callum McCowatt (Silkeborg IF), Jesse Randall (Auckland FC), Ben Waine (Port Vale FC), Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest)

They will arrive in North America as underdogs. They always do.

The question now is whether this group, led by a striker who has grown from World Cup understudy to standard-bearer, can finally turn New Zealand’s stubborn presence on the global stage into something more lasting – and write a new chapter that stretches beyond the group phase.