May 14, 2026 • 10 mins
Today, the All Whites' 26-man strong squad was named that will be heading over to the United States for the fast approaching FIFA World Cup.
Kosta Barbarouses was among the players named, and he joined D'Arcy to discuss.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Duncy Wildergrave
from News talks'd.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be today the All Whites twenty six man strong squad
was named and that's going to be heading over to
the United States and Canada and Mexico. I to go
that far for the approaching fee for World Cup. Costa
barbarusis it was among the players who was named, and
he joins us now to talk about it. Even in Casta.
(00:33):
I'd say stoked and ecstatic is It's probably an understatement though, bro.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, a little bit relieved as all all all the
emotions into one, but mainly mainly happiness and excitement, to
be honest. Like you said, I made my debut for
the All White in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
You're twice as old now as you were when you debuted.
Get that twice as old.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
That's crazy crazy, Yeah, yeah, I was probably a pro
at Dames. Some of the boys in the squads would
have been being born or a couple of years old.
Pretty crazy and scary stuff. But I take it as
a compliment more than the other side.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
You were quite a tear away back then, are you
really well? You burst onto the scene very very young,
how have you changed in your style, playing, your attitude
since you were in your late teens, so now you're
in your mid thirties, things must have adjusted for the
better or the worse.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Well, it's a bit strange because all of my junior
career I'd played as a striker, and then obviously you
get to the senior game, men are bigger, stronger, probably
not faster, which I gets to my next point is
because I was obviously so quick, I naturally get put
out wide. So it was initially a bit foreign because,
like I said, I saw myself as the number nine
(01:54):
the whole time, and then for probably up until about
twenty eight and nine years old, I was playing out
wide Victory. You think that Victor is playing very wide.
When I came back to the Phoenix with Ernie too
high and wide striker is not really a central striker.
It was only when I really played that one year
and Victory moved in and as a nine went to Sydney.
(02:15):
So the last five years that played back to where
I was probably the most comfortable. So without design, I've
had a few changes and had to sort of, you know,
redesign how I play and how I look at the
game as well. So it's been interesting to keep during
this fresh, to be honest, and takes a bit of skill,
I guess to do that, but I've really enjoyed moving
(02:36):
back central.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You're an elastic player, is probably the best way to
put it. You can move around all over the show.
You see, You're comfortable in the space. Now. Is that
how Basy's going to use you?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I would think so. I think he's deployed more as
a central player obviously the last few windows with Chris
missing through injury, but I think he probably does like
that I can play anywhere behind that too. Well. We
do have a lot of really great options in those
positions now. I think they know that I'll be ready
and prepared to play anywhere, and I'm happy to as well,
(03:08):
to be honest, We're going to a World Cup, so
I play, I'll play right back, I'll play lift back.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
And could you play in goal or not?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I could? I'm not fucking all.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, we talked about Darren Bezie the coach before. I'm
presuming he warned you before he gave you the phone
call or was it just straight off the bat, bro
you're playing?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah? No, no, no warning before the call he told
us in the group chat that would be getting calls
if we were in or not. So regardless, you get
a call from base. So getting the phone call was
not necessarily a good thing, you know. So I got
the call at school pick up, like I said, waiting
for the kids, and so nervous stuff. You started to
(03:50):
think a thousand different things, a little bit of small talk,
and then he said, you know, are you ready to
go to the World Cup? So then they're all just
a bit of relief, like I said, happiness. So yeah,
still pretty nerve wracking. As confident as you want to
be that you'll be there, and you think positively, there's
always that a little bit of you know, and when
you get the call, it feels great.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
The listeners can't see this, but we're seeing in the
zoom right now, and I've never seen a grin like
this that's gone for so long on this call. You
can hide it, can you, And you shouldn't. You've got
to celebrate these moments. This is why you play the game.
You try and be all called as a cucumber. That's
not you, is it?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, exactly, I've learned along the way, as we've asked
how it changed. I went years not really celebrating wins
and not you know, going crazy, but normalizing winning. I guess,
and I think you get old, you learn to appreciate,
like even small wins. This is obviously a big win
in a big moment, but you learn to appreciate even
(04:49):
you know, a terrible one nil win. You know you
played terribly by you won one nil. You think that's
a great result, great three points for us. So I
definitely appreciate things a lot more and try to take
it all.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And you I seen you were doing the school run
when you got the news. I'm an old dad, but
I got it done eventually. How much has that change
the way you prepare and your attitude towards games now
that your pop's all mighty, because it's a huge change.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, it's honestly given me a bit more of a
drive to be honest, Like I said before, a little
bit you'd sort of go through the motions a bit,
not go through the motions as are not put in
the work, but just sort of normalize the day to day.
Having the kids given me a bit more I think
strength and a bit more drive to keep pushing to
(05:39):
give them something to be proud of, you know, to
be honest, and I think in the past four or
five years, it's definitely yeah, pushed me on to to
keep going and keep achieving some goals that I had
in mind in some dreams.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You mentioned on the zoom before that you had some
boots that you were given because you thought you're going
to the World Cup in twenty ten from Nike, but
you didn't get I presume you've still got them. I
don't know where they might be, but this time around,
your kids names on the maw call us that.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yeah, yeah, I've still got them. I'll try. They're in
storage in Melbourne, so once it's all done, i'll I'll
take a picture of both hopefully and compare. But yeah,
just I wore them even I wore those boots a
bit because they matched my Brisbane colors. But anyway, different,
like you said, sixteen years on, two kids later. Now
(06:29):
obviously other priorities outside of putting my own name on
my boots, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Senior member of the side, and we know we've got
a couple of senior members in there because of course
Chris Wood and Tommy Smith were there back in twenty
ten and pretty young guys, but you carry that same
weight of experience and of leadership with you. I expect
you to take that quite seriously. But this is something
you expect Tommy is predominantly going to be doing. So
you discussed that much you want fellows.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, I mean, like I said, I'm not a very
vocal leader. I step in in the meetings when I
think is necessary or constructive and helpful, but I'm more
of a leader by example. I think the guys, the
younger guys appreciate when they've probably see a thirty six
year old pressing two center backs, still pressing and working
(07:18):
back and trying to tackle a defensive midfielder. I think
they probably see more value in that than me trying
to tell them what they need to do, because those
guys are pretty confident young guys, which is good. I
try to lighten the mood a little bit in the place.
You know, these guys, a lot of the young guys
carry a lot on their shoulders, like a lot of
part of the expectations, and need to just remind them
(07:40):
like how good they are without blowing smoke up them,
you know, but just try keep them calm, keep them
level headed and like just let them express themselves because
for a long time in New Zealand, I think we'd
go into games thinking like, how how can we minimize
the score here? You know? And now I think there's
(08:00):
a belief and the boys need to keep believing that
we can go and beat all these teams that we
play against. So yeah, a bit of everything, obviously, I
think more so for me leading by example on the pitch.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And you've got that target I'm presuming to get out
of the group unbeaten way back in twenty ten. But
with the build up that you've had in New Zealand
football have not left a stone unturned, have they as
far as preparing this guy. You couldn't be better prepared
for this tournament.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Surely, No, absolutely not have to take a head off
to them. I think it's come from, obviously the players
that PFA working along with New Zoom Football to work
out a sort of map of what's necessary or what
we need, and they've really delivered with played games every
(08:50):
single window against really good opposition, which we haven't done
in the past cycles. So hats off to them. A
few of us boys, now that our season has been
done for a week or so, we're heading into a
pre camp. I am years older to keep up our
workloads and instead of working training by ourselves, work together
(09:11):
as a group. So again, brilliant preparation and everyone will
join on twenty seven. So yeah, I can't say a
negative thing. It's been great.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And finally, your expectations. What do you genuinely seriously think
this team can achieve over in the United States of
America and a FIFA World Cup?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yeah? I think for me, I would love and I
think it's not too far betch without. I don't want
to put a ceiling on the team or I don't
want to say something crazy, but I think we should
try aim to firstly be the first team to win
a game at the World Cup when you're ylling team,
and to be the first team to get out of
the group. You know, we have to aim high, whether
(09:52):
we achieve it or not, that's that's our belief and
we need to aim for that and see where we land.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
When do you get your tirted in fifty grand? You know,
with kids, I won't see any of us, you know that.
Hey cost a real pleasure, mate, Thanks so much for
your time. Congratulations, really looking forward to following this team
through the States.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Go well, mate, Pleasure Mane, thanks very much. Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
For more from sports Talk, listen live to news Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Duncy Wildergrave
from News talks'd.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be today the All Whites twenty six man strong squad
was named and that's going to be heading over to
the United States and Canada and Mexico. I to go
that far for the approaching fee for World Cup. Costa
barbarusis it was among the players who was named, and
he joins us now to talk about it. Even in Casta.
(00:33):
I'd say stoked and ecstatic is It's probably an understatement though, bro.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, a little bit relieved as all all all the
emotions into one, but mainly mainly happiness and excitement, to
be honest. Like you said, I made my debut for
the All White in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
You're twice as old now as you were when you debuted.
Get that twice as old.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
That's crazy crazy, Yeah, yeah, I was probably a pro
at Dames. Some of the boys in the squads would
have been being born or a couple of years old.
Pretty crazy and scary stuff. But I take it as
a compliment more than the other side.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
You were quite a tear away back then, are you
really well? You burst onto the scene very very young,
how have you changed in your style, playing, your attitude
since you were in your late teens, so now you're
in your mid thirties, things must have adjusted for the
better or the worse.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Well, it's a bit strange because all of my junior
career I'd played as a striker, and then obviously you
get to the senior game, men are bigger, stronger, probably
not faster, which I gets to my next point is
because I was obviously so quick, I naturally get put
out wide. So it was initially a bit foreign because,
like I said, I saw myself as the number nine
(01:54):
the whole time, and then for probably up until about
twenty eight and nine years old, I was playing out
wide Victory. You think that Victor is playing very wide.
When I came back to the Phoenix with Ernie too
high and wide striker is not really a central striker.
It was only when I really played that one year
and Victory moved in and as a nine went to Sydney.
(02:15):
So the last five years that played back to where
I was probably the most comfortable. So without design, I've
had a few changes and had to sort of, you know,
redesign how I play and how I look at the
game as well. So it's been interesting to keep during
this fresh, to be honest, and takes a bit of skill,
I guess to do that, but I've really enjoyed moving
(02:36):
back central.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You're an elastic player, is probably the best way to
put it. You can move around all over the show.
You see, You're comfortable in the space. Now. Is that
how Basy's going to use you?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I would think so. I think he's deployed more as
a central player obviously the last few windows with Chris
missing through injury, but I think he probably does like
that I can play anywhere behind that too. Well. We
do have a lot of really great options in those
positions now. I think they know that I'll be ready
and prepared to play anywhere, and I'm happy to as well,
(03:08):
to be honest, We're going to a World Cup, so
I play, I'll play right back, I'll play lift back.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
And could you play in goal or not?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I could? I'm not fucking all.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, we talked about Darren Bezie the coach before. I'm
presuming he warned you before he gave you the phone
call or was it just straight off the bat, bro
you're playing?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah? No, no, no warning before the call he told
us in the group chat that would be getting calls
if we were in or not. So regardless, you get
a call from base. So getting the phone call was
not necessarily a good thing, you know. So I got
the call at school pick up, like I said, waiting
for the kids, and so nervous stuff. You started to
(03:50):
think a thousand different things, a little bit of small talk,
and then he said, you know, are you ready to
go to the World Cup? So then they're all just
a bit of relief, like I said, happiness. So yeah,
still pretty nerve wracking. As confident as you want to
be that you'll be there, and you think positively, there's
always that a little bit of you know, and when
you get the call, it feels great.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
The listeners can't see this, but we're seeing in the
zoom right now, and I've never seen a grin like
this that's gone for so long on this call. You
can hide it, can you, And you shouldn't. You've got
to celebrate these moments. This is why you play the game.
You try and be all called as a cucumber. That's
not you, is it?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, exactly, I've learned along the way, as we've asked
how it changed. I went years not really celebrating wins
and not you know, going crazy, but normalizing winning. I guess,
and I think you get old, you learn to appreciate,
like even small wins. This is obviously a big win
in a big moment, but you learn to appreciate even
(04:49):
you know, a terrible one nil win. You know you
played terribly by you won one nil. You think that's
a great result, great three points for us. So I
definitely appreciate things a lot more and try to take
it all.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And you I seen you were doing the school run
when you got the news. I'm an old dad, but
I got it done eventually. How much has that change
the way you prepare and your attitude towards games now
that your pop's all mighty, because it's a huge change.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, it's honestly given me a bit more of a
drive to be honest, Like I said before, a little
bit you'd sort of go through the motions a bit,
not go through the motions as are not put in
the work, but just sort of normalize the day to day.
Having the kids given me a bit more I think
strength and a bit more drive to keep pushing to
(05:39):
give them something to be proud of, you know, to
be honest, and I think in the past four or
five years, it's definitely yeah, pushed me on to to
keep going and keep achieving some goals that I had
in mind in some dreams.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
You mentioned on the zoom before that you had some
boots that you were given because you thought you're going
to the World Cup in twenty ten from Nike, but
you didn't get I presume you've still got them. I
don't know where they might be, but this time around,
your kids names on the maw call us that.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yeah, yeah, I've still got them. I'll try. They're in
storage in Melbourne, so once it's all done, i'll I'll
take a picture of both hopefully and compare. But yeah,
just I wore them even I wore those boots a
bit because they matched my Brisbane colors. But anyway, different,
like you said, sixteen years on, two kids later. Now
(06:29):
obviously other priorities outside of putting my own name on
my boots, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Senior member of the side, and we know we've got
a couple of senior members in there because of course
Chris Wood and Tommy Smith were there back in twenty
ten and pretty young guys, but you carry that same
weight of experience and of leadership with you. I expect
you to take that quite seriously. But this is something
you expect Tommy is predominantly going to be doing. So
you discussed that much you want fellows.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah, I mean, like I said, I'm not a very
vocal leader. I step in in the meetings when I
think is necessary or constructive and helpful, but I'm more
of a leader by example. I think the guys, the
younger guys appreciate when they've probably see a thirty six
year old pressing two center backs, still pressing and working
(07:18):
back and trying to tackle a defensive midfielder. I think
they probably see more value in that than me trying
to tell them what they need to do, because those
guys are pretty confident young guys, which is good. I
try to lighten the mood a little bit in the place.
You know, these guys, a lot of the young guys
carry a lot on their shoulders, like a lot of
part of the expectations, and need to just remind them
(07:40):
like how good they are without blowing smoke up them,
you know, but just try keep them calm, keep them
level headed and like just let them express themselves because
for a long time in New Zealand, I think we'd
go into games thinking like, how how can we minimize
the score here? You know? And now I think there's
(08:00):
a belief and the boys need to keep believing that
we can go and beat all these teams that we
play against. So yeah, a bit of everything, obviously, I
think more so for me leading by example on the pitch.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And you've got that target I'm presuming to get out
of the group unbeaten way back in twenty ten. But
with the build up that you've had in New Zealand
football have not left a stone unturned, have they as
far as preparing this guy. You couldn't be better prepared
for this tournament.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Surely, No, absolutely not have to take a head off
to them. I think it's come from, obviously the players
that PFA working along with New Zoom Football to work
out a sort of map of what's necessary or what
we need, and they've really delivered with played games every
(08:50):
single window against really good opposition, which we haven't done
in the past cycles. So hats off to them. A
few of us boys, now that our season has been
done for a week or so, we're heading into a
pre camp. I am years older to keep up our
workloads and instead of working training by ourselves, work together
(09:11):
as a group. So again, brilliant preparation and everyone will
join on twenty seven. So yeah, I can't say a
negative thing. It's been great.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And finally, your expectations. What do you genuinely seriously think
this team can achieve over in the United States of
America and a FIFA World Cup?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yeah? I think for me, I would love and I
think it's not too far betch without. I don't want
to put a ceiling on the team or I don't
want to say something crazy, but I think we should
try aim to firstly be the first team to win
a game at the World Cup when you're ylling team,
and to be the first team to get out of
the group. You know, we have to aim high, whether
(09:52):
we achieve it or not, that's that's our belief and
we need to aim for that and see where we land.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
When do you get your tirted in fifty grand? You know,
with kids, I won't see any of us, you know that.
Hey cost a real pleasure, mate, Thanks so much for
your time. Congratulations, really looking forward to following this team
through the States.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Go well, mate, Pleasure Mane, thanks very much. Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
For more from sports Talk, listen live to news Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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