The City Football Group’s take over of Melbourne Heart in in January 2014 has provided a lot of things for the club, from a new badge, new colours and a new name, but one thing it has also provided is one of the best youth facilities in the country, substantiated through the long list of Olyroos and Socceroos that they have produced.
Melbourne City have seen an innumerable amount of young talent burst through the facilities in Bundoora with the likes of Dylan Pieras, Denis Genreau, James Delianov, Daniel Arzani and Connor Metcalfe just to name a few, with one name to add to that impressive list is Anthony Lesiotis.
“The coaches helping us young players as we are coming up, teaching us what we need to do and what we need to be to become a professional footballer” Lesiotis said.
“It’s good habits, that was probably the main aspect of it, and then everyone just wanted to work hard and do really well. I think that’s why most of the boys (from City’s youth set up) have made it to professional football.”
At still only 21 years old, Anthony Lesiotis recently returned to the club where he started his footballing journey, and is hoping to reignite his career after an impressive stint at cross town rivals Melbourne Victory was followed by a disastrous stint at Western Sydney Wanderers.
“Every coach has their own opinions and own tactics and everything, unfortunately, I didn’t believe I was fitting into his style of play.”
Signing for the Wanderers on a two-year deal in November of 2020, Lesiotis came in highly rated, off the back of an impressive season with Melbourne Victory, where he featured 22 times across all competitions.
But unfortunately, he would struggle to break into Carl Robinson’s side failing to feature even once for Western Sydney, let along making a match-day squad.
“Unfortunately it’s just one of those times where you’ve just got to deal with what you get.. I tried my best, did everything I could and unfortunately for me it didn’t really work out.”
In April 2021, the Wanderers and Lesiotis would agree to mutually terminate his contract, and he would return back to Melbourne, signing a scholarship deal with his former club Melbourne city until the end of the 2021 season.
It wouldn’t take long for Lesiotis to find his way into the Melbourne City squad, making his second debut for the club against rivals and his former side Melbourne Victory.
The solitary gleaming light out of the doom-laden Marco Kurz era at Victory, Lesiotis has set his eyes on next season to re-integrate himself into City’s A-League set-up, as the perennial Olyroos candidate in early 2020 is slowly beginning to get himself back on track.
