Wellington Phoenix have moved quickly to sign another promising young New Zealand player as Sarpreet Singh edges closer to a dream European move.

With their top two scorers from last season, Roy Krishna and David Williams, departing for Indian Super League club ATK, and Singh on the verge of a shock move to Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich, the Phoenix have dipped into the transfer market to sign forward Callum McCowatt.​

McCowatt lit up the ISPS Handa Premiership last season, scoring 21 goals in 16 games for champions Eastern Suburbs. He secured the Golden Boot by scoring 18 goals in 14 regular season games and then won the Steve Sumner Trophy for the second year running after bagging a hat-trick in the final.

Stuff understands McCowatt has signed a 12-month contract and will be unveiled as a new Phoenix player in the coming days.

Although Phoenix general manager David Dome did not name the player, he did confirm on Tuesday that a new signing was imminent.

"Hopefully another one will be announced this week. There's a couple of others we are talking to. The timing for Sarpreet is perfect and they'll see this is the model and the way forward," Dome said.

McCowatt was a regular starter for New Zealand at the recent Under-20 World Cup, linking up with Phoenix players Singh, Liberato Cacace, Ben Waine and Callan Elliot in coach Des Buckingham's first-choice starting 11.

The 20-year-old is a product of the Olé Football Academy, the same academy that developed All Whites star Ryan Thomas, and played his winter football with Western Suburbs, who were beaten Chatham Cup finalists last year.

New Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay has made no secret of his desire to give young Kiwis a chance, and the signing of McCowatt, who is widely regarded as one of the country's top prospects, is another shift towards building a younger squad with a strong New Zealand core.

"We're confident that this is the best avenue for young New Zealand footballers and if we can get a few more of the under-20s across the line we'd be absolutely rapt with that," Dome said.

"I think if we build a really good team around the under-20s with a few really good imports that we're looking at at the moment then we'll have a very exciting, youthful team with lots of energy and technical skill. Supplemented with some overseas pros, it could be an extremely exciting year ahead for Wellington Phoenix."

Singh flew to Munich last week following an invite from Bayern. Although they have brought the four-cap international over to Germany with a view to signing him for their reserve team, Bayern are yet to table an official offer.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/113737445/wellington-phoenix-set-to-sign-ol-football-academy-product-callum-mccowatt

This is a great signing. He's still only 20 years old and has a ridiculous scoring record.

I wish they signed him on a longer deal but I'm going to assume the 12 month deal was the player's choice.