Star Perth Glory recruit Ella Mastrantonio says an expanding Liberty A-League is giving Australian players more reason than ever before to continue their development at home rather than abroad, writes Matt Comito.
For one unforgettable season, Ella Mastrantonio found herself deeply immersed in Italian football culture.
It was a season split across SS Lazio in Rome, and Pomigliano CF in Napoli. Mastrantonio felt she was living “on a different planet” throughout her time spent in two of Europe’s great footballing cities.
Mastrantonio has since returned home, to Perth Glory in the West of Australia. The Matildas midfielder speaks to KEEPUP at the club’s base in Fremantle; it’s minutes from her family home, where she visits her parents and two staffy’s Marley and Rollo each day.
On one forearm is a tattoo of Australia. On the other, the boot-shaped geographical outline of Italy. As an Australian of Italian descent, Mastrantonio’s one-season stint at Lazio and Pomigliano was “the dream… to me that was living and breathing football.”
But with the good memories came lessons learnt about the state of the game both at home and abroad. It explains why a return to the Liberty A-League was the right call for Glory’s new signing – who is will fight to be one of the best central midfielders competition-wide in 2022-23.
“Hindsight’s a wonderful thing,” Mastrantonio told KEEPUP. “This is what I say to all the players who ask me about going overseas: you do need to be quite careful of where you go.”
Mastrantonio spent over a decade swapping Perth for Melbourne Victory in the formerly-named W-League before joining Western Sydney Wanderers for the 2019-20 campaign. Then came a move to the Women’s Super League and Bristol City, before a one-season stint in Italy – first at Lazio, then at Pomigliano.
“The club’s I went to, both in England and Italy, in hindsight there were a lot of improvements needed both on and off the field compared to back home,” Mastrantonio said.
People don’t realise we are ahead in some aspects in football.
“You talk about the top clubs, and it’s a different conversation – but the mid to lower teams in each league it’s probably on par, if not we’re probably ahead of a lot of clubs. That’s what I take away from my experiences over there.
“Living in a different country with a different culture and language, the experience was amazing in that sense. But my first season in Bristol we were sharing facilities with a high school. Things like that, when you weigh up playing in Europe and the A-League and the professional side of it, it’s really not up to scratch just yet.
When I was in Italy, it was a complete disparity. It’s hard to know until you go there and experience it. It can be really challenging at times.
“I would say sports science, in both countries I’ve been to, Australia’s sport science level is quite high (in comparison). The care of the players: more physio treatment, more doctors available, more one-on-one care. We’re quite ahead in a few other aspects, like communication. It seems little, but if you’re a professional player, I’m 30 years old, I set my level of expectations – not even high, it’s just normal – but sometimes depending where you go it can be bare, bare minimum.”
Now Mastrantonio is back for a Liberty A-League campaign extended by the arrival of Western United for the club’s maiden campaign. Next season it’s Central Coast Mariners’ turn to enter the fray, with a 12-team, 22-round, full home-and-away season set to kick off a new era beyond the 2023 Women’s World Cup on home soil.
“That was kind of what solidified it for me,” Mastrantonio said. “Before it was only a 14-game season, so it was like: what do you do in between with such a long off-season? It’s definitely a step in the right direction. It’s long, long overdue. Hopefully now in the future we can attract more of our young players to stay and play more locally here.
“Next year it’s going to a full home and away, so hopefully it can only get better from there and be attractive for other players around the world, but also for our young players to stay and develop more here.
“First season here I think I got paid $500 – and I know some players around the league weren’t even getting paid. Now there’s a minimum wage of $20,000, so if you’re a 15, 16-year-old coming in you get $20,000 off the bat.
“Me and all the other girls were saying that the other day: far out, I think we were born a little bit too early! But it’s good it’s happening now. It has been a long, long time coming but I’m glad it’s finally happening and I hope it gets better in the next five to 10 years.”
Mastrantonio is one of many players on the fringes of the Matildas squad looking to use the 2022-23 Liberty A-League campaign to force their way into the thinking of Australia head coach Tony Gustavsson before he selects his squad for next year’s World Cup.
The Glory midfielder’s last appearance in green and gold came in April, 2021 against the Netherlands, breaking her 12 year, 175 day absence from the Matildas. No player has ever waited as long between caps in the history of the Australian national team (“Oh far out, I’ve got a record!” was the response to this bewildering statistic).
She’s yet to be recalled to another Matildas squad since, but her determination to push to feature at next year’s World Cup is unshaken.
“Of course. For sure, I wouldn’t be playing at this level still if I didn’t have goals to be successful and make more national appearances,” Mastrantonio said. “And what’s more attractive than a home World Cup? You can’t get better than that.
“(There’s been no contact) since that camp. But I do know they’ll be watching, and keeping tabs on the league. For people like me who are maybe on the fringes, it’s a good motivation for us to firstly have a good season for your individual team, which hopefully we do at Glory, but if you end up doing well anything can happen.”
As for the Liberty A-League in 2022-23, Mastrantonio says her aspirations to feature at the World Cup can only help a young and hungry Glory team move forward under head coach Alex Epakis this season.
“They only missed out on the finals by goal difference last year,” she said. “They’re obviously building something here, it’s exciting to be a part of that, to try and take a step further than last season.
I think we have some of the best young talent in the country. It’s an exciting era at Perth Glory right now.
