Western Sydney Wanderers defender Anthony Pantazopoulos admits he turned down several overseas offers during the off-season in favour of staying with the club and avenging last season’s painful A-League Elimination Final exit.
“Yeah, there were definitely some opportunities that came up,” said Pantazopoulos, who was the subject of interest from clubs in both the EFL Championship and MLS.
“But at the end of the day, it was my best decision to stay here. I feel like I haven’t done enough here to warrant a move overseas just yet.
“I think I still have a lot to learn and a lot to improve on before I make that jump. Obviously, it’s something that every kid wants to do — you want to play overseas, you want to go as far as you can.
“But for the time being, I’m fully focused on playing this season with the Wanderers and doing what we didn’t do last year, which is winning silverware.”
After being given a chance in the first team by Alen Stajcic last season, the 22-year-old hasn’t looked back — establishing himself as one of the most dominant central defenders in the competition.
“I look back on the first year I was with the Wanderers and obviously I didn’t play much, but I’m so glad that it happened, because it really gave me that extra motivation, watching the boys and watching people perform,” he said.
“I was like, I want to be in that position and I think it’s driven me to another level, and the motivation to get even further.”
At the A-League season launch on Tuesday, the defender revealed his side was still lamenting their 2-1 defeat to Melbourne Victory in the first week of last season’s finals.
The loss meant the Wanderers had a longer than desired wait for a new campaign to roll around.
But that didn’t mean it wasn’t the talk of the pre-season.
Now that the A-League is one week away, the club is focusing on reaching and winning their first grand final in nine years.
“I don’t think I’ll ever leave it behind,” Pantazopoulos said.
“We are still hurting from that, because we felt like we were right there, ready to create something really special.
“That’s going to drive us this year.
“It gets brought up in conversation, maybe once a week, once every two weeks, so it’s constant.”
The Wanderers, however, have a different-looking outfit from last season, with some of their star players such as Nicolas Milanovic and Zac Sapsford having moved to Europe.
However, they’ve been replaced by experienced heads such as Kiwi international Kosta Barbarouses, championship winner Steven Ugarkovic, and Western United’s 2024/25 player of the season Angus Thurgate.
“It’s coming together extremely well. We’ve got winners now. We’ve got people who have won the league and got championships,” Pantazopoulos said.
“Us younger ones are going to lean on them in those big moments.”
With AAP
