We are on the first day of the Australian football championship and, as often happens in recent years, there are some Italian players who will take part in it.
Among these is the central midfielder Iacopo La Rocca, now transplanted to Australia for 5 years .
During the oceanic experience, the Roman footballer born in 1984 had the opportunity to wear three different jerseys of militant teams in the A-League.
This summer he moved to the capital and will play for Melbourne City , but he got to be a protagonist in Adelalaide and Sydney .
How is your stay in Australia
going? How do you think this new season is going
This year we must aim to do well, we have the potential to be in front but we have to start on the right foot.
In Australia I found a second home. I got citizenship and my daughter was born here. We have a great time with my wife, too bad for too much distance from Italy, from relatives and friends.
What it was like to win the Australian championship in Adelaide, where another Italian (Del Piero) failed
Del Piero didn’t have the chance to win the championship, but his presence brought a radical change to Australian football, he didn’t and only a legend for us Italians but all over the world.
For me, winning the championship was incredible, a unique atmosphere with the stadium full. For me, too, there was double satisfaction because we beat my former team, Western Sydney.
You also had the opportunity to win the Asian Championships and then also participate in the Club World Cup, where you scored the third goal of an Italian in the tournament, after Inzaghi and Nesta. How did you feel
Winning the Asian Champions League with Western Sydney Wanderers was something unexpected. In Australia, no team had ever succeeded. It was a great feat especially against the Chinese economic giants with unlimited budgets. Participating in the Club World Cup in Morocco was a great satisfaction. Too bad we lost in extra time to Cruz Azul on an impassable pitch.
I learned only after I was together with Nesta and Inzaghi among the only Italians to have scored two great champions in this competition. For me as a Roman and a Lazio fan, having something that associates me with Nesta makes me very proud.
In 2014 you also obtained the Joe Marston Medal.
The Joe Marsten medal and a medal that they award to the best player of the final, and an important recognition but I would have preferred to win the final, too bad I lost in extra time.
Why did he take a plane to Australia
. You would do it again
I had an offer in Switzerland and in leagues where I was not very fascinated and convinced by the proposal; then my agent told me about a team in Australia. I thought about it, but the idea of ​​going to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world Sydney, getting to know a new country and a different culture convinced me. However, it is a choice that I would make again, there is less stress than in the Italian Serie C, where if you lose a match you are immediately challenged.
You also got to play in Switzerland. How did it go
Switzerland is a quiet country very similar to Australia. The stadiums are beautiful and I have good memories: the promotion to Serie A with Bellinzona and having played with Il Grassoppher, the most successful team and one of the strongest Swiss.
You grew up in Lazio, without ever making your debut. Do you have any regrets
I played for 9 years in the Biancocelesti’s youth teams and I do not hide the fact that I certainly would have liked to have played with the first team. Lazio is the team for which I cheered as a child, but I am still satisfied with what I have achieved and I have no regrets.
When he doesn’t have workouts how do you spend your free
time I spend my free time with my wife and my 20 month old daughter. I dedicate my time to my family. We are lucky because we live near the sea and therefore we focus on what is best for the baby.
Dario Sette
