Tara Murray
North Sunshine Eagles’ Redouane Sarakh was quick to turn the attention to his teammates after claiming the National Premier League 3 best and fairest award.
In his second season at the club, Sarakh was named the best player in the competition for this year.
He also shared the golden boot, with Caroline Springs George Cross’ Joshua Whiteley and Goulburn Valley Suns’ Russell Currie having scored 16 goals for the season.
Sarakh wasn’t at the awards night, as he’s back home in Europe.
“I knew that I won the trophy because members of the club were at the event and messaged me via WhatsApp,” he said.
“I was very happy to hear this news but I would like to thank my teammates because even if it is a personal victory, football is a team sport and without them I would never have won.”
Sarakh said he thought he had a good season in general, but when you look at the statistics that he knows he can do more.
While it was his second season at the club, he said it was only really his first proper season having played just eight games the season before.
“Last year I arrived during the season so I had to get used to a new style of games and especially a different football compared to France, but with the coach and the staff we did a lot of video sessions to quickly adapt and thanks to them this season was better than last year,” he said.
The Eagles started the year strongly before slipping a little bit later in the season. They still finished in third spot, just four points behind second placed Melbourne Victory which earned promotion.
“Like most teams in the championship we all want to be in NPL2,” Sarakh said.
“We worked hard throughout the year but unfortunately we finished third in the championship.
“We do not have a failure because we did better than the year last. We can be proud of the work accomplished by everyone, even if we would have liked to have been promoted into NPL2.”
Back home in the off season, Sarakh said he wasn’t sure what his future held. He didn’t rule out coming back to the Eagles.
“It’s a very good question,” he said. “I left before the last game to carry out a test in a professional team abroad.
“Am I going to stay at NSE? The option remains open. We will see next year even if the objective of a footballer is to play at the best level, in any case I would like to thank the club which welcomed me and respected me from the start.
“I am very grateful that I signed with NSE, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.
“Thank you to the coaches, the staff, the players and the supporters.”
