Dez Giraldi

Welcome everybody to episode 33 of the Football United vs Soccer City podcast. It is a pleasure to have you uploading this episode, whether you are a one-off listener or a frequent listener. I sincerely appreciate your support.

This episode's interviewee had a varied football career here in Australia and in Italy. Dez Giraldi grew up in the Illawarra’s northern suburbs and played the majority of his junior football with Corrimal JSC and the Illawarra representative teams.

He then transitioned from the Illawarra representative teams to the Wollongong Wolves junior teams. After a couple of seasons Dez then joined the Wolves youth team.

From this point Dez then had experiences with the AIS, FIFA U17 World Cup with Australia, Empoli in Italy and then back to Australia in the A-League and here in Wollongong.

His time in the game had many parts, some of this time being complex and challenging. Articulate and thoughtful, Dez has remained genuine, pragmatic and positive about his time in the game. His transition to post football life has been successful and he is a credit to himself and his family.

I was thoroughly engrossed by Dez’s thoughts and journey and I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did conducting it. My sincere respect and appreciation go out to Dez and his family for allowing me into their home.