Western Sydney Wanderers’ Dylan Scicluna has been earmarked for big things in the A-Leagues. The former Aston Villa and Wolves youngster spoke to aleagues.com.au about his learnings in the UK, coming up against Jude Bellingham and Cole Palmer, playing for Malta and more.
Rewind back to November 30.
Western Sydney Wanderers had just snapped a nine-year drought against Melbourne City as Alen Stajcic sat inside AAMI Park’s inner sanctum with some significant praise for a highly-rated young gun.
“He has some qualities that can make him one of the best midfielders in the league if he keeps improving,” Stajcic told reporters late last month.
The player in question was Dylan Scicluna.
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Scicluna is soaring to new heights in just his second professional season with Western Sydney. After a decade abroad in the UK via Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers, the 20-year-old is making a name for himself in his homeland.
“I like to be humble, but I back myself,” Scicluna told aleagues.com.au when asked if he shared Stajcic’s belief that he could become one of the best midfielders in the competition.
“I I think being in England for how many years I was there, an experience that I had there, gives me a bit of an edge on other people here.
“But when I play week to week, I’ll watch the games after, and when I’m playing the games during, I always feel like I’ll get the better of my midfielder, whether it’s off the ball, on the ball, and always back myself.
“So far this season, I’ve done a pretty good job of it, and we’ve played some of the top teams in the league. So if I can do it against players like that, and I can match players like (Anthony) Caceres, like we did in the Derby, and he’s played for the Socceroos, then why not? 100% I could.”
In many ways, 2024-25 has been a breakout season for Scicluna.
The Melbourne-born midfielder has established himself in the Wanderers’ line-up this term with four starts, having only managed three in 16 A-Leagues appearances last term.
Scicluna ranks second for tackles won in the 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League season among midfielders with 16, behind only Auckland FC’s Louis Verstraete. He is in the top 10 for duels won with 41, while he is also ninth for recoveries (37).
He was called up the senior Malta squad for the first time last month before injury forced him to withdraw.
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“Obviously, this is a lot different,” Scicluna reflected. “I’m playing in the middle, where I’ve always played, whereas last season more (as a) full-back.
“The boss has put a lot of belief and confidence in me and starting game after game, week after week, you feel more and more confident. Like now for example, I know what I’m going to bring to the table, and I’m confident to just go out there and do what I can do, which I know is good and helps the team.
“But then on top of that, I want to do more and the more I can do, the more the team can do, and the more successful we can be.”
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This is an exciting prospect who already has a decade-worth of experience abroad, having relocated from Melbourne to England aged just nine.
Scicluna never played outdoor football growing up, instead catching the eye at his father’s futsal academy in in Melbourne. Scoring goals for fun playing age groups above his own – for example he was four playing in Under-8s, a teammate’s father recommended he and his brother Lucas travel abroad to trial.
He was told he was “too good” for Australia. It ended with him joining a Premier League academy.
“I don’t think I fully understood it properly until I got older because when you’re young, you’re eight, nine years old, chasing your dream playing for Premier League club,” he recalled.
“You’re like, yeah, of course, you want to do it, but you don’t understand everything behind it.
“… I remember we went over to my friend’s house and his cousin, who was a scout, they were on a Skype call, and the guy said, basically, if you come over for six weeks or whatnot, we’ll get you trials.
“So we went over for six weeks. We were on trial at (Aston) Villa. I think it was three-and-a-half weeks. Then, like the day before we flew back, you got put into a meeting, and it’s yes, we’d like to sign you or we wouldn’t.
“Luckily for me and my brother, it was we want to sign you. We went back to Melbourne, spoke about it, and then I think it was about six months later we ended up moving.”
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Scicluna eventually spent a year-and-a-half at Aston Villa before making the move to Midlands rivals Wolves.
“I think it was more of a transition of understanding the English way, the outdoor system, because I didn’t really play outdoor before I went over,” he said. “I’d only ever really played futsal, which I feel like was really important.
“That helped me a lot technically and stuff like that because when you go over, when you play outdoor, for example, outdoor is pretty easy when you’ve played indoor for how long. Villa taught me a lot, as in, the football side, more of the grit side, like get stuck in kind of thing, the resilience behind it, and stuff like that.”
Scicluna added: “They look after you a lot. The way it works there is you have your best three to four in an age group, and they’ll move heaven and earth for those players.
“Then the rest of the players, they care a lot about and they’ll help a lot about, but if you’re one of the three or four, you’re going to have a lot better journey than the others.
“Luckily for me, my whole time in England and even my brother, we were always in that category. So for us, it was always you get their little extra things of extra care, extra advice, the extra, extra training with like people, individually, stuff like that to take care of.
“But it’s a brutal industry. At the age of nine, you’re getting pulled into the end of the season, and you’re getting told whether they’re going to sign you for another season, or they’re releasing you, so it’s brutal, in a way.”
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It was at Wolves where Scicluna really had his football education.
Wolves bought him for a small fee after also luring his younger brother Lucas to the Molineux – the pair known as the “Aussie boys”.
“I remember we had, I think it was seven options of different clubs and then the reason we ended up picking Wolves was they had the most amount of coaches to age groups,” Scicluna said.
“They put a lot of care into the academy. And at the time we went there, I think it was eight or nine of their starting XI were all from the Academy.
“So a big boost. If that’s what they’re like, then you got a good shot here.”
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It was a priceless period for Scicluna at Wolves.
Going on to play regularly for the club’s Under-18s and Under-23s, he rubbed shoulders with some of England’s best young talents, including current Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham and Chelsea sensation Cole Palmer.
“It’s always good because you’re always going up against the best every week. You’ll be playing one week against Cole Palmer and be playing against Jude the next,” Scicluna recalled.
“When you’re at a younger age, and so you play against U9s, you don’t take much notice of it, oh this might might be good but okay. Then once you get older and you start playing U18s football, and you play against a Man City or Chelsea, you’re like wow who’s that kind of thing. Later on down the line, you see them start to excel and jump up to U23s and then go into the first team.
“I kind of look back and I’m like, yeah they’re great players, but I gave you a game. So it puts a lot of belief in myself, because I know what and how I went against players like that in a way, like I matched them kind of thing. So if I can match players like that, why can’t I go on to good things?”
During his Wolves journey, Scicluna also trained with the first team – working with the likes of current Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo, Benfica head coach Bruno Lage and ex-Real Madrid and Spain tactician Julen Lopetegui.
“They’re all different in their own way. Some more friendly than others, in a way. But, yeah, the first time you go down and you’re seeing players you watch on TV, you go wow,” said Scicluna, who added that former Wolves captain Conor Coady took him under his wing.
“The first time, you’re like ‘Oh, brilliant let’s go’. And you go down there, and you’re seeing Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, and you’re like, ‘jesus, wow, I watch you on TV, you’re a player’.
“But then once you get down, you start training with them. You very quickly just train at that level. You don’t have a choice. It’s either you train at that level or you’re just going to stand out for being the worst and you’re never going to be back.
“They were always good like that. To be fair, they always pushed each other. And so then when you’re in there, you get pushed and so on.”
Now, Scicluna has brought that experience back to the A-Leagues, despite interest from Europe.
“The biggest thing for me was, I felt like I was at an age where I needed first-team football and Wanderers are just a big club here,” he said.
“I thought that’s the next step for my career. A stepping stone. Go play first-team football, then cement yourself in the team and then from there, do well, and then from there, doors are open for whatever happens next.”
Another appealing factor behind Scicluna’s return to Australia was the pathway from the competition to overseas, with a number of talented prospects making the move abroad – from Nestory Irankunda (Bayern Munich) and Ben Old (Saint-Etienne) to Jacob Farrell (Portsmouth) and Alex Paulsen (Bournemouth).
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“The A-League over the last few years has gotten a lot bigger in regards to players making moves overseas,” said Scicluna. “Some have been successful, some haven’t but the opportunities are there.
“So if you do well enough, and you do what you can do, it’s only a matter of time before something happens.”
The next stop on Scicluna’s exciting career could be senior international football.
A Malta youth international, having also represented Australia, Scicluna was called up by the world no. 169 last month before succumbing to an injury.
“Australia is always definitely an option, 100% being the country you’re born in and all that,” he said.
“But I think the first time you play for Malta, you can just feel the pride of your family, heritage and stuff. That’s not to say I didn’t when I put the Australian jersey on, that was an incredibly proud moment too.
“Playing for both nations is a privilege, but for me, I’m just focusing on, especially now, club football doing as well as I can in club football, and then everything else will just fall into place with time.”
