Defender William Gallas is set to make his A-League debut for Perth Glory against Adelaide United at nib Stadium on Saturday.
The 36 year-old started his career in France and has since played for Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham in the English Premier League.
The Frenchman arrived in Australia last Saturday and has spent the week getting to know his new club.
“Every night I go on the website and I look at all the players and I try to come in the morning and try to say hello,” Gallas said.
“It is difficult because there are 24 players and I have to know all their names.
“I already know the name of my defence line so that is very important and I think everyone is happy.”
Gallas, who has represented France 84 times, has trained with his new team-mates twice this week and is slowly adjusting to the climate in Perth.
The recruit is still unsure at this stage if coach Alistair Edwards will start him or if he will come off the bench on Saturday.
“Every day he asks me how I feel and I’m very honest with him, I said I’m getting better, but training is not the game, you have to play for 90 minutes,” Gallas said.
“I just spoke with the young players and they told me that 90 minutes is very long and you have to be ready because the ball can go from one goal to the other goal and you have to be ready to run.”
Gallas has been working on getting to know Perth’s game plan and is becoming more confident as he settles into the team.
“The first day I didn’t speak a lot, I just listened to the manager for what to do and today because it was a small game, I should speak, so I spoke a lot to my team-mates and they spoke to me.” Gallas said.
“He (goalkeeper Danny Vukovic) speaks a lot on the pitch, the first training he was talking a lot and that is good for the players.
“It is very important that someone can talk and I think for the goalkeeper it is good because that means that he has that confidence and everyone out there is very secure with him.”
