Current Young Socceroos and former Sydney Olympic central defender Tass Mourdoukoutas has signed his first professional football contract by inking a two-year deal with A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers.
The 19-year-old, who has been with WSW since last year when he joined from the Sydney Olympic senior team, has since played mainly for the WSW Y-League and NPL team. His impressive performances have earned a promotion to the senior ranks.
Earlier this year, the teenager, who lists as his favourite players the likes of Sergio Busquets, Yaya Toure and Mousa Dembele, made his senior debut coming on as a sub in a match against Wellington Phoenix.
“I’m honoured to play for this club and I’m excited to get underway. It’s a really big moment for me,” Mourdoukoutas said.
“Like any other young player, I’d really like to set myself up in the club’s Hyundai A-League team and really make my mark. First and foremost, as long as you’re working hard, you see what the older players are doing and try and learn off them.
“A new coach means a fresh start and especially with the pre-season coming up, it’s a good time for us to try to impress him. He (Markus Babbel) was a defender as well so there’s no better person for me to learn off.”
Reflecting on his A-League debut earlier this year Mouroukoutas said, “The experience in Wellington was … it’s hard to describe. But even coming on for a few short minutes was a bit frantic. But I really enjoyed that.”
His signing comes off the back of last month’s departures from the Wanderers of fellow central defender 21-year-old Jonathan Aspropotamitis, and capped Socceroo forward Chris Ikonomidis.
Aspropotamitis departed the Wanderers to join the Central Coast Mariners, whilst Ikonomidis’ short two-and-a-half month loan from Lazio came to an end.