| Club: | Wellington Phoenix |
| Season: | 2021–22 |
| Chairman: | Rob Morrison |
| Manager: | Ufuk Talay |
| Stadium: | WIN Stadium Leichhardt Oval (Due to Coronavirus travel restrictions) Sky Stadium Eden Park |
| League: | A-League Men |
| League Result: | 6th |
| Cup1: | A-League Men Finals Series |
| Cup1 Result: | Elimination-finals |
| Cup2: | FFA Cup |
| Cup2 Result: | Semi-finals |
| League Topscorer: | Gael Sandoval Jaushua Sotirio Ben Waine (6) |
| Season Topscorer: | Jaushua Sotirio Ben Waine (8) |
| Highest Attendance: | 18,184 (vs. Central Coast Mariners, 17 April 2022, A-League)[1] |
| Lowest Attendance: | 38 (vs. Brisbane Roar, 16 February 2022, A-League) |
| Average Attendance: | 4,105 |
| Largest Win: | 4–1 (vs. Avondale FC (A), 14 December 2021, FFA Cup) (vs. Western United (A), 9 April 2022, A-League) 3–0 (vs. Brisbane Roar (H), 16 February 2022, A-League) (vs. Brisbane Roar (A), 30 March 2022, A-League) |
| Largest Loss: | 0–6 (vs. Melbourne City (H), 2 April 2022, A-League)[2] |
| Updated: | end of season |
| Pattern B1: | _blackstripes4_2 |
| Leftarm1: | FFDD00 |
| Body1: | FFDD00 |
| Rightarm1: | FFDD00 |
| Shorts1: | FFDD00 |
| Socks1: | FFDD00 |
| Pattern La2: | _skyblueborder |
| Pattern B2: | _navyandbluechest |
| Pattern Ra2: | _skyblueborder |
| Leftarm2: | 0E2D5C |
| Body2: | 0E2D5C |
| Rightarm2: | 0E2D5C |
| Shorts2: | 0E2D5C |
| Socks2: | 0E2D5C |
| Prevseason: | 2020–21 |
| Nextseason: | 2022–23 |
The 2021–22 season was the Wellington Phoenix's 15th season since its establishment in 2007. The club participated in the A-League for the 15th time and in the FFA Cup for the 7th time.
This season was the Phoenix's third season fully or partially based in Australia, starting towards the end of the 2019–20 season.[3] This season was Ufuk Talay's third in charge; in May 2021 he renewed his contract until 2023.[4]
The Phoenix finished 7th in the 2020–21 A-League season, one point short of finals series.[5] On 21 May, the Phoenix announced that head coach Ufuk Talay had signed a 2-year contract extension with the club.[6]
On 9 June, the Phoenix confirmed the departure of captain Ulises Dávila in spite of the club's record-setting efforts to retain him. He would later sign for Macarthur FC.[7] On 10 June, the departure of Stefan Marinovic was confirmed by the Phoenix after he had signed with Israeli club Hapoel Nof HaGalil.[8] On 15 June, the Phoenix announced the return of Gary Hooper on a two-year deal. On 23 June, the Phoenix re-signed Joshua Laws on a two-year contract. Following the conclusion of the 2020-21 A-League season, on 25 June, the Phoenix confirmed the departure of Cameron Devlin, Liam McGing, Luke DeVere, Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi, Matthew Ridenton, Charles Lokolingoy, and Mirza Muratovic. On 30 June, it was announced that left-back James McGarry signed a one-year contract extension.
On 10 July, it was announced that Tomer Hemed would not be re-signing with the club for the 2021-22 A-League season. Hemed had finished as the Phoenix's top goal-scorer with 11 goals. He would later sign for Western Sydney Wanderers.[9] On 29 July, it was announced that defender Callan Elliot, who had previously played for the club, had returned on a two-year deal. On 30 July, the Phoenix announced the signing of Australian midfielder Nicholas Pennington on a two-year deal.
On 13 September, the Phoenix announced that academy players Ben Old and Alex Paulsen had signed three-year professional contracts with the club.[10] On 27 September, Steven Taylor announced his shock retirement just days after being named captain.[11]
On 13 October, the Phoenix bolstered their defensive stocks by securing a season-long loan deal for 20-year-old Melbourne Victory centre-back Matthew Bozinovski.[12] On 18 October, the Phoenix announced the signing of Olyroo Luka Prso on a one-year deal.[13] On 22 October, the Phoenix signed reserve team players George Ott and Kurtis Mogg on one-year scholarship contracts ahead of the A-League Men season.[14]
In November the Phoenix played their last three preseason matches. They won against the Central Coast Mariners and Western Sydney Wanderers 1–0 and 2–1, respectively. The Phoenix would lose their last preseason match against Sydney by a 1–0 margin.
Other players with first-team appearances
| No. | Position | Player | Transferred from | Type/fee | Contract length | Date | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | Unattached | Free transfer | 2 years | 15 June 2021 | [15] | |||
| 17 | Free transfer | 2 years | 29 July 2021 | [16] | ||||
| 13 | Free transfer | 2 years | 30 July 2021 | [17] | ||||
| 3 | Melbourne Victory | Loan | 1 year | 13 October 2021 | [18] | |||
| 12 | Free transfer | 1 year | 18 October 2021 | |||||
| 7 | Loan | 1 year | 21 December 2021 | [19] | ||||
| 4 | Free transfer | 5 months | 7 January 2022 | [20] |
| No. | Position | Player | Transferred to | Type/fee | Date | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Macarthur FC | End of contract | 20 May 2021 | [21] | |||
| 1 | End of contract | 31 May 2021 | [22] | ||||
| 2 | Unattached | End of contract | 25 June 2021 | [23] | |||
| 3 | Unattached | End of contract | 25 June 2021 | ||||
| 4 | Unattached | Mutual contract termination | 25 June 2021 | ||||
| 8 | Unattached | End of contract | 25 June 2021 | ||||
| 12 | Unattached | End of contract | 25 June 2021 | ||||
| 13 | Unattached | End of contract | 25 June 2021 | ||||
| 15 | Unattached | End of contract | 25 June 2021 | ||||
| 17 | Western Sydney Wanderers | End of contract | 11 July 2021 | [24] | |||
| 27 | Retired | 27 September 2021 | |||||
| 12 | Unattached | Mutual contract termination | 10 January 2022 | [25] | |||
| No. | Name | Position | Duration | Date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Centre-back | 2 years | 23 June 2021 | [26] | ||
| 5 | Left-back | 1 year | 30 June 2021 | [27] | ||
| 6 | Defender | 3 years | 22 February 2022 | [28] | ||
| 19 | Midfielder / left-back | 2 years | 21 March 2022 | [29] | ||
| 4 | Centre-back | 3 years | 24 March 2022 | [30] |
| Position | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| Head coach |  Ufuk Talay | |
| Assistant coach | Chris Greenacre | |
| Assistant coach/Head analyst | Giancarlo Italiano | |
| Goalkeeping coach | Paul Gothard | |
| Head physiotherapist | Ben Venn | |
| Strength & conditioning coach |  Aidan Wivell |
See main article: 2021–22 A-League Men.
See main article: 2021 FFA Cup.
|-|colspan="16"|Goalkeepers:|-|-|colspan="16"|Defenders:|-|-|colspan="16"|Midfielders:|-|-|colspan="16"|Forwards:|-|-|colspan="16"|Players that have left the club:|-
Includes all competitive matches. The list is sorted by squad number when total clean sheets are equal.
| Player | A-League | A-League Finals | FFA Cup | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GK | 20 | Oli Sail | 5 | 0 | 1 | 6 | |
| 2 | GK | 40 | Alex Paulsen | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Includes all competitive matches. The list is sorted by squad number when total disciplinary records are equal.
| --width:90%;-->" | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | No. | Name | ||||||||
| FW | 9 | David Ball | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| MF | 13 | Nicholas Pennington | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| MF | 14 | Alex Rufer | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| DF | 16 | Louis Fenton | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| DF | 17 | Callan Elliot | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| MF | 19 | Sam Sutton | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| DF | 21 | Joshua Laws | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| MF | 23 | Clayton Lewis | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| DF | 4 | Scott Wootton | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| DF | 6 | Tim Payne | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| MF | 7 |  Gael Sandoval | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| FW | 10 | Reno Piscopo | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| FW | 18 | Ben Waine | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| GK | 20 | Oli Sail | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| DF | 5 | James McGarry | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| MF | 8 | Ben Old | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| MF | 11 | Jaushua Sotirio | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| DF | 33 | Finn Surman | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| FW | 43 | Oskar van Hattum | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| FW | 88 | Gary Hooper | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |