Christian Aloisi, son of Ross, signs for Adelaide United’s youth team
Former Adelaide United skipper Ross Aloisi’s son Christian signs for the Reds; a former Campbelltown City coach steps up and more in this week’s edition of 90 Minutes.
ALOISI SIGNS FOR ADELAIDE UNITED
It may well be the first time a father and a son will etch their names into the playing history of Adelaide United.
Paul Pezos — coach of the Red national premier league team and youth team — has confirmed that he has signed an Aloisi.
Christian Aloisi, 18, is the son of Adelaide United’s inaugural A-League captain Ross.
The teenager has penned a deal for Adelaide United’s youth team with Pezos confident the youngster can take the next step and follow in his father’s footsteps.
Pezos signed Christian just weeks after the former Brisbane Roar NPL and youth team player had been invited to train with the first teams of Swiss clubs Lugano, Aarau and FC Baden.
“I have seen enough of him when we played against Brisbane Roar,’’ Pezos said.
“He is the right age and a good pick up and I want to help him develop for the next two years.
“He’s got the right attitude, that’s the No. 1 priority for us and he’s got some good abilities in his game and we want to develop him into a mature player.”
Pezos has developed a number of players that have turned into A-League players including Carlo Armiento, Louis D’Arrigo, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos (Western United), Nathan Konstandopoulos and Pacifique Niyongabire.
Christian did enough to impress all Swiss clubs for a contract but just when it appeared a contract was about to be tabled to the attacker he decided to come home.
Ross is currently in Brisbane on gardening leave from his Roar assistant coaching gig.
ITALIAN COACHES LEAVE MARK ON CITY
A former coach of Campbelltown City juniors who saw Adelaide United gloveman Paul Izzo in action as a kid and a plethora of other SA NPL players is now in charge of Italy’s under 21 national team.
Paolo Nicolato once briefly coached some of Campbelltown City’s most promising youngsters including Izzo, John and Daniel Solari (Birkalla), Peter Mercurio (Croydon) and Christian D’Angelo (Blue Eagles) when he was part of Italian club Chievo Verona’s visit to the Newton club in 2007 alongside director Loris Margotto and coach Marco Fioretti.
The former Serie A club hoped to set up a permanent relationship with Campbelltown City but it never eventuated despite the coaches being the most in demand in the junior sector in Italy.
Now the trio are again at the top of the development tree with Margotto hoping to rekindle the flame but with a different outfit in Australia.
Margotto is in charge of Italy’s No. 1 development club Atalanta BC which is now in this year’s UEFA Champions League.
Fioretti is a coach on Atalanta’s books and Nicolato’s career has flourished as a boss of young Italian national teams since he almost gave the caper away when Chievo released him.
Margotto invited 90 Minutes on a tour of Atalanta BC’s $40 million junior facility upgrade in Italy this month.
Nicolato coached Italy’s under 18s, 19s, 20s and was appointed the Azzurri’s under 21 boss this month.
He led the under 19s to the European championships final and to the semi-final of this year’s under 20s FIFA World Cup, taking charge of future world superstars including Moise Kean (Juventus) and Nicolò Zaniolo (AS Roma).
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Dutch playmaker Roland Alberg who trialled with Adelaide United has recently signed with Holland’s Roda JC.
The 28-year-old who played almost 200 games in the Netherlands, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece and the US, impressed during training sessions at United but not the boss Gertjan Verbeek despite scoring in a friendly against MetroStars.
Ex Adelaide United coach Guillermo Amor’s son, Guille Amor, has signed a lucrative deal with English club Leeds United on a free transfer from Barcelona.
The 18-year-old signed a two-year deal at Elland Road just two years after a crazy FFSA ruling wouldn’t allow the talented Spaniard to play games in Adelaide United’s senior NPL team but he was OK to play for the Reds reserves.
Former Adelaide United midfielder Daniel Adlung is again attracting interest from A-League clubs as the Middle East also tries to court the hard working midfielder.
A hot tip is that one Adelaide United player’s agent is working overtime in a bid to get his client into Europe before league action begins over there.
If a move for the experienced player does eventuate it will hurt the Reds badly after the off season departures of Isaias (Qatar, Al-Wakrah) and Craig Goodwin (Saudi Arabia, Al-Wehda) has rocked many of the club’s fans.