New Zealand side unveil Jeffery Sarpong

Jeffrey Sarpong says he's ready to fill Nathan Burns' goal-scoring boots for the Wellington Phoenix.

The club's newest signing was unveiled on Tuesday morning, a day after the former Ajax academy prospect flew into the capital to sign a two-year deal.

The 27-year-old has been brought in to fill the gap left by Burns' departure to Tokyo FC, and will take a similar path to Burns when he arrived in Wellington, converting from a pacy winger to a goal-scorer.

The Dutchman has scored just 11 goals in more than 150 professional games over 10 years in the Dutch Eredivisie and Spanish La Liga - although more than 60 of those appearances were off the bench.

He said he was ready to increase that strike-rate.

"I'm willing to work on my game to make me a more complete player, I'm good at giving assists but now it's about scoring more goals, it will be an interesting challenge."

Phoenix manager Ernie Merrick said Sarpong was a direct swap for Burns, but it would take time for him to adapt to his new role.

"There's a lot of work involved and that was part of our assessment, how coachable he was and how capable he was to learn.

"You're not teaching him new tricks, you're just changing his on field position.

"He's got the speed, he's got the dribbling ability, it's really just his positioning on the field."

Sarpong said the Phoenix's other Dutch midfielder, Roly Bonevacia, played a significant role in getting him to Wellington.

"I had a good talk with Roly, a good friend of mine, he told me all about the club, the city and the league.

"I also had a good talk to the manager [Merrick], he knew all about me and spoke a lot of confidence about me.

"Those two people were a major factor in me coming here."

Sarpong had interest from other A-League clubs and teams in England, Spain and Italy, but decided on Wellington because Merrick was the manager who showed the most interest in him.

"It's good to have a manager who believes in you and knows what type of player you are.

"I had a better feeling with the manager and I just didn't want to go to a team where the manager didn't know me well."

Sarpong also consulted fellow Dutch A-League players Kew Jaliens (Melbourne City) and Romeo Castelen (Western Sydney) before deciding to move his wife, Stacey, and 22-month-old daughter Zoe to the other side of the world.

He's not a big man, standing at just 1.76 metres, and shapes as a similar player to former Phoenix winger Kenny Cunningham, with pace and aggressive dribbling - although Sarpong's ball control and awareness will be much better than the Costa Rican's.

He got a traditional Wellington welcome for his first training on Tuesday, with rain and a strong southerly wind at Newtown Park, but said the weather wasn't too different to his homeland.

"I'm used to it, Amsterdam has the same weather," he said.

Sarpong holds both a Ghanaian and Dutch passport and is still eligible to represent either country.

Jeffrey Sarpong is a former Dutch under-17 and under-21 international who came through the ranks of the famed Ajax academy. In June 2009, he changed nationalities from the Netherlands to Ghana, the home nation of his father. He has yet to represent Ghana at international level.

He will not travel with the team for their FFA Cup round of 16 match against Melbourne City on Wednesday, with Merrick saying they would build his fitness up slowly.

Meanwhile, Louis Fenton is yet to have a scan to determine the seriousness of his shoulder injury.

He hurt it playing for New Zealand A against his club on Sunday. Merrick said he could be out from between a couple of weeks to five months depending on the result of the scan.