Striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and goalkeeper Isaac Richards win senior A-League contracts
Cricket may have been their first love but now Adelaide United’s Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and Isaac Richards have been won over by the world game and rewarded with A-League contracts.
- Leckie humbled by Socceroos captaincy talk
- Viddie hopes to build on first Red Lions intake
- Out-dated salary cup short-changing Reds
Apostolos Stamatelopoulos’ rigid weight loss program and Isaac Richards quitting a budding cricket career has been rewarded by Adelaide United.
The club has upgraded their contracts to senior deals until the end of the season.
The teenagers have been inseparable, crossing paths since they were playing cricket during primary school and later state representative soccer before first earning scholarship contracts for Adelaide.
Stamatelopoulos, 19, has now earned four A-League starts in two seasons and scored twice.
He claimed he needed to raise his standards after reviewing his debut season.
“I thought last year I wasn’t ready to play A-League and I recognised that,’’ he said.
“During the off season I lost nearly 6kg, I was sitting around 85-to-86kg last season and now I’m sitting at 78kg.
“It was my decision, I looked at myself and thought that I needed to lose (weight) and improve something, I did a lot of running during the off season and I got myself a hell of a lot fitter.
“My fitness levels have gone up heaps, I feel like I can train longer, I struggled last year with the training loads but this year I’m fine.
“I have been doing gym work as well and I have been feeling heaps stronger, I base my game on my strength on the ball.
“My speed has also gotten a lot better.
“My testing has improved heaps from last season to this season as well.”
He is now the Reds’ main striker role.
Injury to strikers Baba Diawara (knee) and George Blackwood (collar bone) has added pressure to his game.
Stamatelopoulos also declared Richards, 19, was the far better cricketer and the goalkeeper’s former SAPSASA Boys cricket coach Derek Woodcock confirmed the Reds back-up gloveman was a spin bowler.
Richards said he was asked to make a choice between soccer and cricket when he made soccer’s state team.
He is yet to make his A-League debut, playing a waiting game behind the club’s No. 1 Paul Izzo.
“I’m glad I stuck by soccer, I couldn’t really deal with the long days in the field and things like that,’’ Richards said.
“There’s no background in the game (soccer) by my family at all, my dad played a lot of country (Australian rules) football, we lived at Echunga until I was about six.
“There was no real link for me and soccer, I really enjoyed it as a kid.
“Cumberland United was my first club.”