For Subway Socceroo #637, Alessandro Circati, his rise to the top flight of Italian football is one filled with hard work, talent, and a case of right place right time.
His footballing journey began back in West Perth as a junior playing for Perth Soccer Club.
In 2017, Circati moved to Perth Glory where over the course of three years he won youth titles at various age groups before winning the Most Glorious Youth Player Award in 2020.
He enjoyed his time in Perth, but had a yearning for more and wanted to chase the dream of playing in Europe.
“Growing up in Perth, when you're young, you probably sort of dream to play for Perth Glory,” he said.
“But the dream was to play for the biggest clubs in Europe. So that's what I did, I just sort of had to follow my dreams and had to sacrifice, and everything sort of slowly turned out the way I wanted it.”
From Perth, he journeyed to England to trial for Leicester and whilst it was a successful period for the young defender, issues with Brexit and Covid meant his time there came to an end.
And due to restrictions back in Perth, Circati had to stay with some of his family just outside Parma, in Italy.
“I moved to England to trial at Leicester, then everything's gone well there but because of Brexit I couldn't stay there,” he said.
“During Covid time, no flights were available (to Perth), so I had to stop by with family, like an hour and a half from Parma, and I was there for a month and a half, two months.”
His dad, a former Parma player himself, organised for Circati to maintain his fitness by training with the youth team at the club.
And well, from there, the club were impressed with his ability, determination and hard work, all of which saw him rewarded with his first professional contract.
“We just thought why not just go down and kick a ball, have some training and enjoy my time there knowing it was about to end soon,” he said on his initial period at Parma.
“Honestly, unexpectedly after about a week of training they said, ‘we like you as a player would you like to stay here?’.”
Injuries within the club in his position meant that Circati was given an opportunity to train and eventually play for the first team.
On his debut for the club, he stood out at centre back in a game Parma won 4-0 over SPAL in Serie B before going on to make six more first team appearances that season.
“Initially, I was training with the youth team. I spent six months with them, and I played I think five league games with them and then the first team had a couple of injuries in my position,” he said.
“All of a sudden, one of the other guys, had another injury, and I sort of had my opportunity to play and I started that game and that gave we won 4-0.”
The following season, with a renewed contract under his belt, Circati made 32 appearances in all competitions for the club and helped his side lift the Serie B title and earn promotion to the Serie A.
Parma’s return to Seria A will mean that Circati will become the third Australian to play for the club in the top division in Italy after Vince Grella and Mark Bresciano.
“I'm fully aware of what it means to play in Seria A as an Australian, and Parma is quite an Australian club from what I've been told with two past players, Vince Grella, and Mark Bresciano, so I'm well aware,” he said.
Closer to home though, as already mentioned, his own father is a former Parma player, and it is something that makes Circati extremely proud.
“It's quite emotional, obviously for him and I feel like I've made him proud and obviously he's proud of me,” he said.
“Mum and Dad, both of them, and my older brother have had it quite tough and now Dad gets to fly over to enjoy watching me play and I'm sure he feels like he's part of it.”
Looking ahead to the 2024/25 season, Circati is really looking forward to testing himself against the best clubs in Italy.
“I think it would excite everyone, to be able to play against those teams, to be able to show what you can do against those teams because I think that's the elite of the world,” he said.
“I think that's everybody's dreams and obviously that's still one of my dreams because I still haven't accomplished it.”
He will, of course, be able to chase those dreams now, after years of hard work and as stated, some great timing, has got him to where he is today.
From Perth to Parma – it really is just the beginning for Alessandro Circati.