Welcome to Wonderkid Watch: A weekly piece that keeps you up to date with the players and stories emerging from A-Leagues clubs playing at NPL level in Australia.
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Highly-rated teen who played for Villarreal & trained with Euro giants scores on debut
Teenage sensation Beckham Baker – named after England Manchester United legend David – is making an impact on the football field, and progressing through the ranks after scoring in Melbourne City’s VPL1 season opener on Saturday.
Baker made his debut for City’s senior academy side at VPL1 level and scored in the 2-2 draw with Manningham United in Victoria’s second tier, along with Ryan Kalms.
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The 16-year-old playmaker was a standout performer, scoring in the first half as he capped a memorable individual display for Alessandro Diamanti’s side, who finished fifth in 2024.
Baker is still early in his career but the teen has already amassed nearly 100,000 Instagram followers.
A couple of years ago, he joined the academy of LaLiga side Villarreal after impressing within City’s youth setup.
That came after previously travelling to England at the age of eight, training and playing with Manchester United U10s, Manchester City U10s and Chelsea U10s.
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“I see myself as a skilful player, I have no fear using any of my skills in a game and I like to take players on. I play as a winger (left/right), midfielder or striker,” Baker told Ultra Football previously.
“I admire Arnaut Danjuma and Riyad Mahrez and the great CR7 because I play similar to their style.”
The Round 1 fixture also featured a debut for 15-year-old Akeem Gerald after a brilliant 2024 season which saw him score in every age group he played in (U14, U16 and U18). Roland Ballah also impressed for the A-Leagues club.
Western’s wild night
And breathe. Western United’s season-opening 3-2 victory away to Bulleen Lions was chaotic.
Western have a new head coach at the helm – Andreas Papanicolaou – after Diogo Ferreira was promoted to John Aloisi’s assistant coach in the Isuzu UTE A-League following an eye-catching 2024 which saw the Green and Black narrowly miss out on promotion.
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Under the lights on Monday night, Papanicolaou’s Western survived a wild five-goal shootout in their VPL1 opener after Jake Najdovski‘s two goal performance inspired the visitors.
Western led 2-0 at half-time thanks to Najdovski – who has featured six times for Aloisi’s side in 2024-25 – and Mark Leonard, the brother of Isuzu UTE A-League young gun Dylan.
Bulleen, though, rallied in the second half. The home side scored twice twice in seven minutes to level the score at 2-2 with 23 minutes remaining.
Then, Najdovski converted a 78th-minute penalty to restore Western’s advantage.
By the end of the game, Bulleen finished with nine players, while Western were reduced to 10 after Oli Lavale saw red for a second bookable offence in the closing stages.
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In NPLM VIC, promoted Melbourne Victory kicked off their campaign with a 1-1 draw at home to Altona Magic.
Jack Mihailidis scored the opening goal for Victory – who have a new coach in Boris Seroshtan – at the Home of the Matildas, where Altona Magic earned a share of the points.
Mihailidis scored four goals at VPL1 level for Victory in 2024, while he added another two for the U23 team.
Young gun catches the eye in Newcastle
Garang Arou was among the goals as he inspired a successful start to the season for promoted Newcastle Jets in Football NSW League One.
The Jets are in the second tier following an historic 2024 campaign which saw Newcastle go through the entire season undefeated, winning the Premiership and Championship en route to promotion.
Over the weekend, the Jets overcame Inter Lions FC thanks to Arou and Xavier Bertoncello.
A former defender for NPLM VIC club Green Gully, the 20-year-old made an immediate impact in Round 1, opening the scoring in the 14th minute before Bertoncello struck eight minutes later.
After the game, Arou – who has been training with Rob Stanton’s Isuzu UTE A-League outfit – earned big praise from his coach.
“I thought he (Garang Arou) was fantastic,” Damian Zane said via newcastlejets.com.au.
“He played himself back into the form he was in at the end of last year which was a real positive. I also thought Kierry James wasn’t far behind Garang.
“He was really good, especially in the second half, he ended really well.”
Elsewhere in League One, Bulls FC Academy lost 2-1 at Northern Tigers. Atiya Waraga scored for Nicolai Muller’s team.
In NPLM NSW, Western Sydney Wanderers and Mt Druitt Town Rangers played out an entertaining 1-1 draw in Round 1.
Meliwethu Nkomo broke the deadlock for the Wanderers before Mt Druitt Town responded in the second half.
“I think it opened up a lot in the final 15 minutes for both teams,” said Wanderers head coach Richie Cardozo via NPL NSW.
“We had the better of the first half and should’ve been up a few goals.
“Second half, they got on top early and pegged us back but I think we deserved all three points.”
Sydney FC suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 defeat away to NWS Spirit after conceding in the 91st minute.
Two goals in as many minutes from Alen Harbas and Mathias Macallister had Sydney 2-1 ahead at half-time before the Spirit rallied in the second period.
“For large parts of the first half we were the better team, the second half they were more aggressive and we didn’t do well enough to play through it then to concede two set-pieces was disappointing,” said Sky Blues head coach Jimmy Van Weeren via NPL NSW.
“Pre-season has been good but it’s another thing to have the right mentality in competition games like tonight and we have to be better there.”
Central Coast Mariners, meanwhile, lost 5-0 to Manly United.
