A return home and further opportunities to promote football within indigenous communities were two of the major drawcards to bring Qantas Socceroo Jade North back to the Hyundai A-League.
A return home and further opportunities to promote football within indigenous communities were two of the major drawcards to bring Qantas Socceroo Jade North back to the Hyundai A-League.
North has spent the best part of four years plying his trade overseas, but when Brisbane Roar came knocking the versatile defensive player heeded the call.
Having begun his professional career at the Brisbane Strikers in the National Soccer League, North-s home-coming will hopefully allow him to finish his career where it started.
“Coming back to Brisbane was important, it-s where I grew up and they are a good footballing side,” North said.
“Football is a funny game and you never know where you-re going to start or where you-re going to end up.
“I-m over the moon to be back in Brisbane.
“I haven-t been back here for 12 years but it-s a fantastic place to live and I-m really looking forward to living here with my family.”
North believes Brisbane can still be a force in the current Hyundai A-League season, saying the elements are here for further success.
As for his contribution to helping achieve that success, North said he would continue to work hard to put himself in a position to be available for Head Coach Mike Mulvey to call on.
“I-m concentrating on getting myself fit,” he said.
“I-m coming out of a J-League season, I-ve been on holidays so I need to do whatever I can, as quick as I can to get myself fit.
“I-m always ready to get back on the park, but you can-t be silly about it and try and come back when you-re not 100 per cent fit condition-wise.
“That-s how you can come in and get hurt, so you-ve got to be smart about it.
“I-ll be working hard on the sidelines with Kenny [Stead, the Roar-s football conditioning coach] and making sure I-ll be 100 per cent as soon as possible.”
Outside of the day-to-day commitments of a professional footballer, North is hoping to use his return to Australia to devote more time to promoting Football Federation Australia-s Indigenous football program “Football Dreaming”.
Relaunched last year, North will work closely with FFA to help develop stronger football ties with Australia-s indigenous community alongside other indigenous players in the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League.
“I wanted to come back to work with FFA on some indigenous programs off the park,” he said.
“For me, that was one of the biggest things to come back for.
“I want to try give everything I-ve learned from the game back to not only indigenous kids, but kids in those programs to help them out.”
