Capital Questions with Vince Lia

If it’s been a hard week at work and I’m in need of a drink I’ll be at… Four Kings, hav­ing a vodka, lime and soda.

Then the next day if I need a slap-up feed and a cup of Wellington’s finest cof­fee I’ll be at… Caffe L’affare for the atmo­sphere, and because I know people who work there. Joe’s Gar­age is anoth­er favour­ite with the play­ers. Their Joker (a spicy brat­wurst saus­age, bacon and free-range egg roll) is fantastic.

I always find if you need some cul­ture you can’t go past… the Sunday water­front mar­kets, if I can get myself out of bed in time and the weath­er is good. A friend of mine owns the Brazili­an bar­be­cue down there, too, so it is a good place to hang out and get some lunch.

My favour­ite Wel­ling­ton land­mark has to be… the Mt Vic­tor­ia lookout. I take my fam­ily there quite a bit. We drive!

The Wel­ling­to­ni­an I would take to a pub quiz is… Tim Brown. He’s pretty smart, for a foot­baller. He retired last year and went to study in Lon­don, but he’s a Wel­ling­ton boy at heart.

I know I shouldn’t, but Wellington’s best-kept secret is… Scorch­ing Bay, in the sum­mer. If you’re going to drive all that way, it’s a whole day thing – you stay at the beach.

When the zom­bie apo­ca­lypse arrives and I can save only one mem­ber of the Phoenix, it would be… Manny Mus­cat, ‘cos he’s a build­er so he can build me a place to sleep.

I am most ashamed to have nev­er vis­ited… a few months ago that would have been Te Papa for sure, but after sev­en years in Wel­ling­ton I finally got there!

My pre­dic­tions for the upcom­ing Wel­ling­ton Phoenix sea­son are… that we will be firmly entrenched in the top six, and hope­fully in the top four for a home final after that. There is a really good feel­ing in the camp now. We are feel­ing fresh, our new sign­ings are great, and with the new man­ager there is a change of approach, too. It is an excit­ing time: we can’t wait to be play­ing a new style of foot­ball, win­ning games for the fans, and see­ing more people at West­pac [Sta­di­um] as a result.

If I could choose any one play­er in world foot­ball to sign for the Wel­ling­ton Phoenix it would be… Lionel Messi of Bar­celona. He can do everything!