All Whites Matt Garbett and Marko Stamenić have been best mates for years. Now they’re going to a FIFA World Cup

Tuesday, 2 June 2026

Only a select few get to represent their country on the international sporting stage.

Even fewer get to do it with their best mate by their side.

But for the past eight years, that’s been the case for Matt Garbett and Marko Stamenić.

Now two men at the heart of the All Whites as they return to the FIFA World Cup after 16 years away, they first met on the football fields of Wellington when they were boys.

Two very competitive boys, as they tell it.

Their friendship was forged while they were under the tutelage of former All White Declan Edge at the Olé Football Academy in Porirua, where they were also close with fellow World Cup squad members Eli Just, Callum McCowatt and Nando Pijnaker, all two or three years older.

The notion that iron sharpens iron was true for Garbett and Stamenic, who were identified as two of New Zealand’s top 2002-born prospects very early on and pulled on the Fern for the first time at U-17 level in 2018.

“They always managed to put us against each other,” Garbett recalled of their early years at Olé, as he and Stamenić sat for back-to-back interviews with Stuff at the All Whites’ Boca Raton hotel. “Whenever he got the ball, I’d be after him, trying to get him, then whenever I got the ball, he would always try to smash me. It was just that back and forth.

“Even though we're best mates, we were just so competitive. We would get into it a little bit, but we'd still stay mates after the training. I just remember us just going after each other, and we still do it here as well.”

Garbett and Stamenić went to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil together in 2019, but were denied an U-20 World Cup experience as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Their prodigious talents meant they were selected a cycle ahead of schedule in the mostly U-23 team for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 by Danny Hay, who then handed them their All Whites debuts when he started them in a 2-1 win over Curaçao that October.

The pair have been ever-present in national team squads since then, earning 36 and 37 caps while scoring five and three goals respectively, in a period where the All Whites have played a total of 46 matches.

When the World Cup squad was announced, NZ Football made use of the fact that they wear consecutive numbers – seven and eight – to reveal them together, two friends who have been on similar journies since day one.

But after spending much of their teenage lives joined at the hip, Garbett and Stamenić have largely been apart since 2019.

The former’s professional career has taken him first to Sweden, then Italy, the Netherlands and England, where he now plays for Peterborough United, and the latter’s has taken him to Denmark, Serbia, Greece and now Swansea City in Wales – after an English Premier League pre-season alongside All Whites captain Chris Wood at Nottingham Forest in the middle of last year.

While they speak on the phone almost every week, their separate career paths make the five windows a year when they can come together in person for international duty something they treasure, a privilege that was especially poignant last November, when it allowed Garbett to throw his arms around his close friend soon after the sudden death of Stamenić’s father, Niko.

“I came a couple of days early and so did Matt, so we had a couple of days to be together,” Stamenić said. “The type of mate he is, he really looked after me. Our families were really tight as well. My parents were really good mates with his parents, so there was all sorts of support.”

As Garbett put it: “I would say he's basically family and I think he would say the same”.

Now their families are set to have the chance to watch them play at a World Cup, in stadiums a far cry from the wintry Wellington football fields they first started out on, as kids inspired by the All Whites’ last World Cup appearance in 2010, which came the year they both turned eight.

Stamenić has started every All Whites match he has been available for under coach Darren Bazeley, who has also made him the captain for their last three outings, with Wood absent injured.

Garbett has also been a regular starter under Bazeley, but might end up having to play an impact role at the World Cup, as the selection squeeze goes on in attacking midfield.

They are both expected to feature heavily as the All Whites’ ramp up their preparations with a friendly against Haiti in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday night (kickoff 12pm Wednesday NZ time).

All Whites – 2026 FIFA World Cup

Squad

Goalkeepers: Max Crocombe, Alex Paulsen, Michael Woud

Defenders: Callan Elliot, Tim Payne; Tyler Bindon, Michael Boxall, Nando Pijnaker, Tommy Smith, Finn Surman; Liberato Cacace, Francis de Vries

Midfielders: Lachlan Bayliss, Joe Bell, Matt Garbett, Eli Just, Ben Old, Alex Rufer, Sarpreet Singh, Marko Stamenić, Ryan Thomas

Forwards: Kosta Barbarouses, Callum McCowatt, Jesse Randall, Ben Waine, Chris Wood

Fixtures (NZ time)

Friendlies

June 3, 12pm: v Haiti; Chase Stadium, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

June 7, 8am: v England; Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida

World Cup group G

June 16, 1pm: v Iran; SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, California

June 22, 1pm: v Egypt; BC Place, Vancouver

June 27, 3pm: v Belgium, BC Place