Aaron Mooy's three-year contract with Manchester City proves there can be a second chance for Australian players in Europe and that the A-League has become a springboard for emerging talent rather than a football backwater.

Mooy moves to the Sky Blues from their sister club, Melbourne City, just a couple of months before his 26th birthday, and a decade after his failed, first attempt to estbalish himself in England.

After almost four years at Bolton Wanderers, starting at their youth academy and not appearing in a first team game, he signed with Scotland's St. Mirren in 2010. During a mixed two seasons he made only 21 league appearances, and scored just one goal -- against Rangers at the end of 2011 -- as he struggled with a back problem.

So, Mooy was at a professional crossroads when he returned home the next year to become one of the first signings of the Western Sydney Wanderers as they joined the A-League for the 2012-13 season.

For the first time in his career, Mooy found himself playing regular first team football, week in week out, as he stayed largely injury-free. Western Sydney's immediate success was a big boost -- they made consecutive Grand Finals in their inaugural two seasons -- and he earned his first senior Socceroo cap at the end of 2012 in Hong Kong.

Mooy would reveal that playing alongside Japanese icon Shinji Ono at Western Sydney, and against Sydney FC's Italian legend Alessandro Del Piero, helped mould his style and philosophy.

"Shinji Ono's played for big clubs in Europe and Asia and in World Cups and anything I've asked him, about tactical things or whatever, he and all the other players have answers," he told Fairfax Media in 2013.

"[Del Piero] was hard to get close to, really hard to get on the ball; very smart. I gave away a penalty ... sucked me in and showed why he's a great player."

While Mooy impressed at Western Sydney, it wasn't until his move to Melbourne City in 2014 that he really started to dominate the league, winning the club's player of the year award in consecutive campaigns.

The extra work on his strength and fitness started to pay off as Mooy became the kind of midfielder over 90 minutes that coaches dream of: Regularly scoring goals, providing assists, doing his part in defence by winning the ball, and most importantly, providing the axis through which almost of the team's possession passes through.

And the shades of Del Piero and Ono have influenced a mature and self-assured player who has vision, rarely loses the ball and often makes opponents look silly. His combination with Uruguayan striker Bruno Fornaroli -- who broke an A-League season record with 25 goals -- was one of the reasons why Melbourne City had their best-ever campaign, finishing just one victory short of the Grand Final. Mooy's 21 assists for the season were also a record.

In the last four editions of Australia's relatively short domestic season, Mooy has played more than 100 league games, and added regular scoring to his repertoire. He netted 11 times in 2015-16, which represents almost half of his career total of 23.

And after not being part of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup squad, Mooy has become, arguably, the first name on Ange Postecoglou's team sheet just 18 months later. The Socceroos coach described him as "the best and most exciting player in the A-League." He has 18 caps, most of them earned during the 2018 AFC World Cup qualifying campaign.

Like Australia's most successful European exports Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka, Mooy is technically near-perfect, having become two-footed after hours of kicking the ball against the wall in his western Sydney home, from the age of three.

Mooy, Kewell, Viduka and Australia's record goal scorer Tim Cahill were all teenagers when they first went to Europe, destined for Bolton, Leeds, Zagreb and London, respectively. But Mooy's previous overseas failure seems irrelevant now because he has become a tough, battle-hardened campaigner who is accustomed to being the most marked and kicked man in every game he plays.

While it may be a stretch to predict that he will become a regular member of Manchester City's star-laden midfield, Mooy is now better equipped to be a success in Europe, should he be sent out on loan. He certainly wouldn't be out of place at one of the newly promoted sides of the Premier League or in the upper realms of the Championship.

And if that happens, Mooy will be able to look back on his four seasons of A-League football as the turning point of his career.

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by Jason Dasey

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