Western United head coach John Aloisi says he’s yet to discuss future plans with Alessandro Diamanti, despite the Italian veteran revealing he’s been offered a deal to play on for the next Isuzu UTE A-League season.
A former Serie A and Premier League player with 17 caps for Italy, Diamanti turns 39 in May and is in his third A-League Men campaign with Western.
The club’s inaugural marquee player for their maiden season in 2019-20, Diamanti made 27 appearances in his first campaign in Australia, scoring eight goals, and won the Johnny Warren Medal as the league’s best player.
He featured 24 times last season, scoring once, and is yet to hit the scoresheet in his eight appearances for the league leaders this campaign.
When asked about his intentions at the end of the season on the Football From A to Z podcast, Diamanti said he’d received an offer from the club but hadn’t decided whether he’d play on or not.
Aloisi said the contract offer revelation was “news to him”, but experienced players such as Diamanti had been vital in Western’s fine first third of the season in which they’ve won six of 10 games to be three points clear at the top of the league.
“That’s discussions that we’ll have internally. We haven’t spoken about that at length,” Aloisi said as Western prepare to visit Sydney FC on Saturday.
“It’s funny that Dia’s mentioned it, I didn’t even know that he’s spoken about that on a podcast.
“Look, I’m happy with all of them. I’m happy with the way that they’re wanting to work and wanting to improve and someone like the Diamanti at his age is still wanting to improve and learn.
“It’s great to have, not only him but (Nikolai) Topor-Stanley, Neil Kilkenny – the older players are great for our younger players and they set the culture and they drive it.
“At the moment I haven’t spoken to Dia personally about anything other than you know preparing him for games.”
