Wellington Phoenix star Kosta Barbarouses has signed on for another season at the club following his second-best campaign of his career.

The All Whites forward has resisted interest from rival clubs to commit to his hometown club for the 2024-24 A-League season, with an option for a further year.

Barbarouses led the Nix’s record-breaking campaign with 13 goals and five assists and is now fourth on the all-time list of A-League men’s goal scorers after becoming just the eighth player to reach the 300-game milestone.

“It’s a season to be proud of individually and as a team,” the Greek New Zealander said in the club announcement.

“Obviously we had our best ever year as a club and it’s probably no surprise after the season we had there was a fair bit of interest in me.

“I weighed up everything and decided Wellington is by far the best place for me to be.”

The 34-year-old said he has big aspirations to do something special there and his goal is to continue playing at a good level heading into the 2026 World Cup.

He believes he can keep performing at a high level.

“As a long as I keep feeling good I obviously want to be a mentor for the young ones and I want to be one of the best performing players in the league as well.”

“I don’t want to kid myself when I don’t think I’m there and probably wouldn’t keep playing if I didn’t.

“I think I’ve still got so much to offer and this season’s obviously proven that so I’m not going to put a limit on myself.”

The four-time A-League champion also feels he has unfinished business with the Phoenix

“I’m really proud of what we achieved as a club this year. We were millimetres, seconds, minutes away from a grand final and we want to keep building on that.”

Head coach Giancarlo Italiano is thrilled to have kept hold of Barbarouses for at least one more season, saying he believes he can keep performing despite his age.

“Age is not something I’ve taken into consideration. For me it’s about his output,” he said.

“He’s outperformed so many young guys this season it’s beyond what anyone else thought he could do at that age.

“It’s more about how fresh he is in the mind and how he applies himself.

“One more year here with a possibility of another year will get him to the 2026 World Cup. His goal is to get in that squad, and we want to support him to get there.”