Fabio DiLiza has certainly put a new spin on having a kick with your mates.
The elite soccer junior, now 22, kicked eight goals and was a
gamechanger for Hillside Sharks in Saturday’s EDFL division 2 grand
final.
With 68 goals from 13 games, this was was the 22-year-old’s first season of footy.
After climbing as high through soccer’s ranks as the Joeys (the
national under-17s) and Melbourne Victory youth, DiLizia decided to give
footy a go this winter.
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Winning a premiership and starring in the grand final means it couldn’t have gone much better.
“It’s a pretty good feeling, after playing soccer my whole life and making the change to footy,” DiLizia said.
“All the pressure was on this year. We got some good players down
and all the boys should be rapt. I’ve known a lot of them since they
were juniors.
“It was a nerve-wracking first half. The coach had a few words and
I started to get a bit of the ball and got the confidence up.
“To be honest I wanted a bit of a game. We’ve pretty much smashed
everyone this year and I felt a few of the boys would be better if we
got a tough game.”
After playing in the Victorian Premier League since leaving the
Victory youth there will, no doubt, be some offers to bring DiLizia back
to soccer next season.
“Will I stick around?” he said.
“It’s a good question, I’ve got a few mates who all car-pool to training together so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
