New Zealand Derby (football)
The New Zealand Derby, also known as the Kiwi Clásico, or Kiwi Derby is a local football derby in the A-League Men, Australia's top soccer league, between the two New Zealand-based clubs in the league: Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix.
Name
The New Zealand derby has the nickname of the Kiwi-Clásico. The nickname is derived from El Clásico, the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain, one of the largest sporting rivalries in the world. The name was officially announced by the A-Leagues prior to the kickoff of the 2024–25 A-League Men season, the first season since Auckland FC were founded in 2024. However, the rivalry is more commonly referred to as the New Zealand Derby, especially in New Zealand.History
The first meeting of the two clubs was on 2 November 2024, at Sky Stadium in Wellington in Round 3 of the 2024–25 season. The match was played in front of 26,252 spectators in attendance. the match would finish in a 2–0 win for Auckland, thanks to a clean sheet from former Wellington player Alex Paulsen and goals by Jake Brimmer in the 89th minute and the 90+6th minute. To celebrate their win, after the match Auckland hired a digital billboard outside Sky Stadium, which read "Welcome to Ellington. We took the W back to Auckland". The second match was played at Go Media Stadium in front of a crowd of 26,253 and ended 2–1 to Auckland. It was this game where Auckland conceded their first ever competitive goal, scored by Kosta Barbarouses. In their third meeting, also at Go Media Stadium, Auckland triumphed again with their largest winning margin against any team to date, 6–1, including the club's first hattrick, scored by Neyder Moreno.Head-to-head
| Competition | Matches | Auckland wins | Draws | Wellington wins | Auckland goals | Wellington goals |
| A-League Men regular season | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 4 |
| A-League Men Finals Series | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Australia Cup | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All matches | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 4 |
Players who have played for both teams
Below are the players who have played for both Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix.Currently no players have played for Auckland before Wellington.
Wellington, then Auckland
| Player | Pos. | Wellington tenure | Auckland tenure | - | - | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | Pos. |  Records
StatisticsPlayersTop goalscorers
|
nowrap|2024–present