Starting afresh Musa's goal

James Musa is returning to the Team Wellington team for which he was a key player in the 2011-12 season. Photo / STUART MUNRO

Back to the school books and back to the launching pad is how Wanganui's football export James Musa feels about returning to the national league after two years of the heights of Phoenix and then Fulham football.

The 21-year-old was released from his English premier club Fulham FC at the end of his five-month contract in June, having been on loan to Hereford United FC for a period. He never made a first-team appearance with the glamour Fulham club.

Considering his options when a decent offer with another club did not materialise for him or his manager during the English pre-season transfer window, Musa was looking at attending university fulltime in England until his old Team Wellington under coach Matt Calcott came calling.

Musa will now rejoin the club which has picked up some handy players on the local scene such as New Zealand age-group representative players Anthony Hobbs and Jason Hicks.

It will also allow Musa to attend summer courses and do extramural work at Massey University's Wellington campus, leaning towards a marketing degree.

Back in Wanganui for a break, Musa said his parents had talked to him about doing a sports management-type degree in England, but the young man felt it would be too difficult to be that close to the sporting industry if he could no longer play.

"I just went back [to England] because it was pre-season hopefully to get some trials.

"It turned out it was quite a bad year for people going on trials, and transfers.

"I know that there was a handful of us released from Fulham and they all found it difficult."

Musa said he did receive some interest, but it was from team's "probably about the eighth or ninth league down".

"It wasn't beneficial, I need to make a living. When I heard that Team Wellington was interested, I spoke with Dad, and we knew they could work with both [sport and university]."

Musa will therefore play the summer with Team Wellington and then consider his options, going fulltime to Massey after the 2013-14 season if nothing else happens on the professional football front.

The defender still wants to put what he learned at Fulham into practice with Team Wellington, as the squad looks to perform at the "high standard" to push through to the OFC Champions League and break Auckland City FC's monopoly of that title.

Having been in the New Zealand A squad that played the full Jordan team in Auckland in June, Musa is also hoping being on the local scene will keep him in the eye of the All White selectors.

"Being here has me in front of the coaches."