Central Coast Mariners midfielder Max Balard has fit a lot into his 22 years. He tells KEEPUP how living in five countries, and suffering rejection as a footballer aged 18, have helped shape him into who he is today.
Max Balard was just six years old when his family landed in war-torn Sri Lanka.
Within a week, a bomb destroyed a bus less than one kilometre away from where he and his family were staying. It set an early tone for what was to come for Balard, who was forced to develop intelligence and maturity beyond his years to comprehend the reality of his surroundings in the middle of a civil war.
Sri Lanka was just one stop on his family’s journey; Balard has called five different countries home throughout his 22 years, and gathering life experience across that time has helped the young Australian born to French parents develop into one of the most intelligent young central midfielders in Australian football.
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“I’ve had a pretty crazy travel experience, I guess,” Balard told KEEPUP.
“I was born here and lived in Australia for three years, then moved to Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, spent a bit more time in Australia, then moved to Dubai, and eventually came back five or six years ago, just following my dad’s job.”
Balard’s mum and dad both come from Annecy, a city in the southeast of France and near the border of Switzerland. Balard describes his parents as “high school sweethearts” who made a new life in Australia when his dad, a France U21 international rugby player, ventured Down Under in the French off-season to rehabilitate from an ACL tear.
“He came over and loved it so much,” Balard says. “My mum closely followed him, and then I was born here in Australia, in Sydney.”
Then came the Balard family’s winding journey through Asia. Despite being just six when touching down in Sri Lanka, the memories are stark, and front of mind.
“In Sri Lanka, I was around six years old then,” he says. “It was a time there was a civil war over there, so it was pretty intense. You could see the poverty around, it was a tough time for the country.”
The Sri Lankan civil war began in 1983, lasting just under three decades before its end in May 2009.
“Within the first week of being there, there was a bomb on a bus one kilometre away from the hotel we were at,” Balard continues.
“It was pretty crazy. Within the three years I was there, twice – both times my dad was away on travel for a couple of weeks – there was an enemy plane flying over, and they’d turn off all the lights in the town, and have guns shooting at the plane shooting aimlessly, trying to shoot it down.
“I thought (they were) fireworks at the time, I was so young. And you just see bullets and red lights flying. I was telling my mum: ‘Look, it’s fireworks!’ But all the lights were off in the city. My mum told me quickly to go back to the door and sit by the door in case anything happened.”
Balard describes his life so far as “a rollercoaster,” with the experiences of living abroad helping to shape him into who he is today.
Along the way he’s been dedicated to his studies, with a bachelor degree in economics and commerce leaving him open to pursue “quite a few avenues” away from football: “investment banking, financial advising – even Chief Financial Officer of a football club!”
But for as long as he can remember, making it in football has been the top priority. Now, he’s a mainstay in the Central Coast Mariners’ starting XI, and preparing for a likely start in the Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final against Melbourne City at CommBank Stadium on Saturday, June 3.
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Memories of rejection at youth level are spurring him on in the early years of his professional career.
“There was one very scary experience when I was younger, when I came back to Australia from Dubai,” Balard says. “I was trialling for Manly United in the under-18’s, and at the time I had only just returned to Australia… when I came I did the trials, and I thought I’d be good enough to make it. I felt I was good enough to make it, but unfortunately it didn’t work out.
“At the time, when I got the phone call telling me I didn’t make it, I was crying in bed. It was tough. I thought: ‘If I can’t make Manly United, how am I meant to make it to the professional league?’ It’s been my dream the whole time to be a professional football player.
“I had to find another opportunity, and it came in the form of Hakoah Sydney City East FC, who were NPL1 also at the time… I used to bus and ferry over to get there. At the time, I was fortunate they gave me the opportunity, but when I was told I wouldn’t make Manly United it was a pretty scary experience.
“I never really gave up on the dream, I guess. It just made me stutter a little bit… it hit me with the reality that football is a game of opinions, and unfortunately it didn’t go my way.
“Thankfully I got the opportunity. I ended up playing Manly United later that season, and beat them 1-0. It was my revenge to them. Coming all this way now has just fuelled me even more I guess.”
Balard’s gaze is now set firmly on the Grand Final. He knows a triumph over City “would be amazing for the club, the community, and for myself.”
Then, his attention will turn to setting the wheels in motion to reach future goals. One stands out above them all: representing Australia at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“Unfortunately the U23’s, I’m a month too old and I’m devastated about that,” he says. “I’ve never represented Australia in the Young Socceroos, or any form like that. So my goal is to eventually, hopefully, if the overage player could be me, I’d be more than happy to take that role (in the Olympic squad).
“Being half-French and also in Paris, it does make a bit of sense but I know I’ve got to earn it and work hard to get there. So that’s my goal.”
