It must be the hardest thing for any parent, but especially a Greek Australian parent, to see your child embark on an international football career at just 14, but for Paul Klisaris, he couldn’t convince his son Tari otherwise.

Jumping on a plane all by himself to enter the prestigious Cruzero FC academy, Tari left his home behind and committed to a professional football career when others his age would be content with watching The Simpsons all day.

Now at 18, the young defensive midfielder is set to start for Swedish team Sandvik FC in their 2014 season for division two of the Swedish League.

He will play on Sunday with the seniors as the youngest player on the squad.

Tari has never seen his youth as a drawback, playing many times with much older players and becoming a vital cog in the team.

In Australia before he left at the age of 13, he was playing in the under 15s for Bentleigh Greens.

Oakleigh Cannons trained him, then South Melbourne poached him, before Tari made the decision to head overseas to get a foot in the door of the sport’s elite.

He spent half a season at Panionios FC in Greece and 18 months playing for Cornella FC in Spain before signing to Sandvik.

It’s been a tough six years for his family, with his father Paul Klisaris (you may remember him as a former Mayor of Monash) not sugarcoating the pain of distance.

“For Greek heritage parents to do this, it was hard,” he tells Neos Kosmos.

“At least he’s very independent, he never got homesick. So from the age of 15, he’s been living and fending for himself.”

Paul remembers his son thriving in many forms of sport, and surprisingly started in Aussie rules.

As an Auskick boy, Tari developed a thirst for ball sports at the age of five. When he had a shot at football at Oakleigh Cannons at age nine, he was hooked and he never looked back.

Now in Sweden with the pre-season finished, Tari is in game mode, raring to go and ready to impress.

His trajectory is set firmly on achieving greatness in Europe, even if the goal seems tough.

“When we talk to him he only talks about Europe at the moment, there are thousands of young men and women who place themselves in Europe to play, it’s not easy,” father Paul says.

“His journey has some way to go, he’s optimistic and he’s enjoying it.”