Welcome to A-Leagues Life, where KEEPUP brings you all the latest news and goings on at your club. This is how the week is shaping up across the A-Leagues and beyond.
Featured image credit: @HibernianFC
Alfie to Hibs sparked by iconic Sydney Derby finals strike
After spending the best part of five seasons in the Sky Blue of Sydney FC, Adam Le Fondre has sealed a move back to the UK with Scottish Premiership club Hibernian FC.
It’s an impressive move for the 36-year-old Englishman, who called time on his Sydney stay on Monday before linking up with the Edinburgh club in the early hours of Saturday morning (AEST).
At the time of his Sydney FC departure, Le Fondre stated he “would have loved to have stayed and gone on to break (Alex Brosque’s) goalscoring record at Sydney FC.” Le Fondre (73 goals) sits 10 goals behind Brosque on the club’s all-time goals leaderboard. But it wasn’t to be; Le Fondre confirmed his exit having won two Isuzu UTE A-League championships and one premiership in Sky Blue since his arrival Down Under in 2018.
But of all his contributions to the club, he saved one of his best for last: an Elimination Final winner against Western Sydney Wanderers in the very first Sydney Derby final in A-League Men history.
It was the goal that sparked the chain reaction that led to Le Fondre putting pen to paper on a one-year deal.
“It’s quite funny, actually,” Le Fondre told Hibernian club media. “I was going into the Elimination Finals in Sydney, and out of the blue (Hibernian director of football Brian McDermott) texts me after I scored the winner against the Wanderers.
“He just said: ‘How are you doing?’ That sort of thing. I was like: ‘Yeah, I’m great thanks’ and the talks sort of progressed from there.
“I was at Sydney FC at the time, so I was fully focused on what I was doing there, but he said: ‘Let’s have a chat towards the end of the season when it’s fully finished for you, and let’s see what you’re thinking, what we’re thinking, and speak to the gaffer as well’.
“And it worked out well because I’m here now.”
Carl Valeri finding his purpose at Gisborne SC
Like so many professional footballers, former Socceroo and Melbourne Victory star Carl Valeri struggled to find the same escape post-retirement that the game provided to him.
“Football was my thing; it was my meditation,” Valeri told Football Victoria.
“When I was on the pitch, I wouldn’t have a care in the world. When I retired, I didn’t have that connection.”
Now he’s found that outlet once again, coaching Men’s State League 4 side Gisborne SC.
Valeri began at the club coaching his daughter’s U9’s Girls team in 2019. But things soon escalated for the A-Leagues great.
“I thought about what the best way for me to give back to football and I wanted to give my kids a good community feel so I decided to join Gisborne SC and get involved as much as I could,” he said.
“All of a sudden you’re watching training and the next minute you’re coaching a session and then the next minute you’re coaching,” Valeri said.
Now he’s the club president, and leading the senior men’s team. Valeri was adamant he would never coach seniors, and he’d only coach his own kids – but in the end: “I put my hand up, and it turned out to be the best decision I had made.”
“Coaching gave me that outlet (I’ve missed since playing),” he added. “It gave me that same buzz, and getting that connection became so important after I lost my Mum in February this year. There will be a void the rest of my life, but football has been helping me”.
Read Football Victoria’s full discussion with Valeri here
Rising A-Leagues striker scores again for Olyroos
The Olyroos might have fallen to semi-final defeat to Panama at the Maurice Revello Tournament – but Noah Botic can hold his head high after scoring his second goal in what has been a promising tournament for the Western United striker.
Botic scored the opening goal of the semi-final with a well-taken finish at the front post; he almost doubled his tally late in the game with what would have been an incredible winner, crafting a header out of nothing from the tightest of angles and only just failing to find the bottom-right corner.
His goal on 19 minutes against Panama was a thing of beauty, converted after one of the Olyroos’ best attacking moves of the tournament. It was made possible by a shift in shape, with right-back Callum Talbot drifting centrally to allow Cameron Peupion acres of space on the right wing. He received from centre-back Josh Rawlins, before feeding the ball to the feet of Talbot in a pocket of space in behind the attack.
Talbot returned the ball to Peupion with a ball toward the byline, who whipped a venomous cross to Botic to convert.
On a disappointing day for the Olyroos, it was a moment of pure class that capped off a tournament in which Botic impressed.
