Get an inside look at Chloe Logarzo’s emotion-charged return to the Liberty A-League in the latest episode of KEEPUPs ground-breaking docuseries, A-Leagues All Access.
Chloe Logarzo could have taken the easy route on her return to competitive club football.
Sidelined for the best part of a year after an ACL tear in late 2021, Logarzo’s hopes of securing a spot in the Matildas’ 2023 World Cup squad were put into jeopardy.
The midfielder has since returned to the international scene and clubland, making incremental steps without returning to full fitness.
WATCH A-LEAGUES ALL ACCESS, EPISODE 07: BE STRONG GIRL
She might have returned to Sydney and the comforts of home – but Logarzo instead elected to continue along that patient, careful road at Western United, the Liberty A-League’s expansion side playing out of the West of Melbourne.
Logarzo knows the distance from home is exactly what she needs.
“I’ve literally put my life on hold to alter everything, to be ready for this World Cup,” Logarzo tells A-Leagues All Access.
“I don’t go out, I don’t drink, I keep to myself to make sure I’m doing all my recovery. These little one percenters are definitely what makes the difference when you’re at the top of the top. It’s my full-time job, and I’m taking it as seriously as I possibly can.
They’re not the decisions I would be wanting to make, but they’re the hard ones we have to.
The Western star is the key protagonist of this week’s episode of A-Leagues All Access: ‘Be Strong Girl’. The episode is KEEPUP’s first centred around the Liberty A-League, detailing the run-in to Logarzo’s very first appearance for the club in Round 1 of the 2022-23 season.
Logarzo returns to the Liberty A-League after leaving Sydney FC at the end of 2019-20. In her final appearance in Sky Blue, Logarzo scored in a 4-2 grand final win over Perth Glory, helping secure the club’s third ALW championship.
She’s not yet retired, but Logarzo is already a Sky Blues legend. It’s what made the sight of Logarzo running out in the green and black of Western against Melbourne Victory in Round 1 all the more peculiar.
Logarzo is just one state border from home – but she’s treating her stay at Western as if the new club is based in another country.
It’s that mentality which is helping Logarzo cope with the separation from family, and to focus on her football.
“I played for Sydney for, like, six years or seven years. It was the first club I was in,” Logarzo said.
“I’m very family oriented. I know being in Sydney would be detrimental to me, because I would want to spend as much time as I could (with family)… I treat this as if I’m not really in Australia, and I can focus on my football. I can see them after the World Cup.
Every decision I’ve made, even this one being here, was based around how I can be the best that I can be for 2023.
A lot is weighing on this. I’m taking it so seriously, and I think that’s why I will be content when I retire, because I’ve put everything I can out (there), and (I’ll) just see where I get with it.
Produced by KEEPUP Studios and JAMTV, each new episode of the docuseries will debut on Thursday at 7:30pm AEDT on 10 Play, KEEPUP.COM.AU, the KEEPUP app and KEEPUP on YouTube. It will be available on Australia’s fastest growing streaming service, Paramount+, and will then be broadcast on 10 Bold at 2:00pm AEDT on Saturday afternoons as an appetiser for the evening’s Isuzu UTE A-League Men game on the same channel.