Italian soccer club Perugia pounces on North Queensland teen Riley Gott
He was overlooked for selection in the recent Queensland Schools soccer team, but a Townsville Warriors winger has just signed his first professional football contract in Italy.
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He was once the Townsville teen overlooked for selection in the Queensland Schools soccer team, but Riley Gott has beaten many of his peers to sign his first professional football contract.
The Townsville Warriors winger, 18, has abandoned plans to start an auto-electrician apprenticeship in Brisbane to join AC Perugia in Italy’s third division.
The Umbrian club launched a worldwide scouting campaign after being demoted from Italy’s Serie B in June.
Perugia is rated 67 overall on football simulation game EA Sports FC 24 - higher than any club in the A-League.
It’s 2023 player wage bill was $12.2m AUD, nearly 25 per cent higher than the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL.
Gott was spotted by Perugia scouts at a North Queensland training camp in July and was invited to attend a trial in Italy, competing against fellow international talents for a full-time contract.
Through 10 days mixing and matching with footballers from Serbia, Peru, Venezuela, the UK and more, the kid from North Queensland was offered a six-month contract to help drive Perugia’s promotion push.
His dream of playing professional football is now officially reality.
“I was very stunned,” Gott said.
“When Matt (Yee, Football of Excellence academy coach) told me, it was awesome, a dream come true. Everything a kid dreams of. It was an awesome opportunity, for a kid from North Queensland. I didn’t expect that at all.”
Gott had never made a representative team higher than North Queensland schools before his fairytale rise to Perugia.
He credited the pain of missing out on representative football as a formative experience.
“The year before I made my debut for NQ I didn’t get picked at all,” Gott said.
“It was like a switch in me was flipped. I put in more effort, got better and the next year I was picked - but it hurt a bit, not being selected for Queensland.”
Gott’s next meeting with the players picked ahead of him was at the Perugia trials in Townsville.
Gott had one arm tied behind his back - with a cast on a broken hand - but did enough to earn a ticket to Italy for a second round of trials, culminating in a contract offer.
“I still haven’t really wrapped my head around it,” Gott said.
“There's always that little bit of doubt in your mind because of how much it meant to everyone there. Everyone wanted it badly but it came down to what you put in, your technical ability and how much you could work. I was confident I’d be in the contenders list but you never think you’d be told you’re going to Italy.”
Coach Yee said Gott’s Italian move was an opportunity for more than just himself.
“Perugia’s stadium is bigger than the Cowboys’ and they sell it out every week,” he said.
“Him being there has opened doors for more than just himself because Perugia has sister-clubs in Belgium and the Netherlands. Now they know this Aussie kid from Townsville and they’ll be looking here for other diamonds in the rough. This is a massive deal.”
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Originally published as Italian soccer club Perugia pounces on North Queensland teen Riley Gott
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