RICHMOND’s Scott Madden is a soccer prodigy going places – and getting there fast.
Madden, 17, will travel to Japan and Korea at the end of next month to represent the Australian Schoolboys in the Asian Championships after a season that has been littered with glittering achievements – all on the back of a car accident in March that sidelined him for four weeks and robbed him of top fitness for nine.
The Hills Sports High School student appeared on the Foxtel reality show ‘Football Superstar’ during the season, and despite being just a few weeks after the accident, he made the Top 10 in NSW from more than 400 applicants.
While he didn’t go the distance on the show that awarded a contract with Sydney FC and a Macquarie University scholarship to the winner, he did show enough promise to win a spot in the 22-player train-on squad for the A-League club’s National Youth League team, and is training four days a week with the aim of playing for the Blues in the new feeder competition.
It has been an extremely successful year for the redheaded central midfielder, with his selection in the Australian Schoolboys team being the culmination of some excellent form at the NSW and Australian championships where he played a key role in Sydney West and NSW taking those titles.
He also helped Hills Sports win the NSW Public Schools and All Schools championships, while he was in the Blacktown City Demons team that won the NSW Premier Youth League under 18 minor premiership before losing 2-0 to APIA Leichhardt in the grand final.
Madden said he was delighted with how well this year had gone, especially after the early setback.
“I didn’t think things would go this well, especially after the crash – I thought it’d take a long time to get back to full fitness,” he said.
“I got whiplash in my neck and back and getting muscle spasms in my shoulder, so I could barely move for the first week or so.
“But once the whiplash eased up and I got into rehab to get the muscles going again, it only took about eight or nine weeks to get over it.
“I got the clearance from my physiotherapist to go back into training and the Football Superstar camp was only three days later, so it was always going to be hard, but I got into the top 10 in NSW and the top 40 in Australia – I hoped to go further but I was really happy with that.”
And so was Sydney FC, who made him the youngest player in the 22-man under 21 squad.
“The training has been going well, I was very nervous before the first lesson with (Sydney’s NYL coach) Steve O’Connor, but once I got into it and found my feet I was okay,” Madden said.
“I’m getting a lot of good experience and learning when to do and when not to do things and Steve thinks I’m doing alright so hopefully I can get called up.
“I played the last 15 minutes of a trial game and did well, so hopefully I’ll get called up if any injuries occur, but it’s under 21s and I’m only 17 so I’ve got plenty of time.”
Madden is currently searching for sponsors who are willing to help him raise the $6000 he needs to get to Japan and Korea for the Asian Championships to continue his development into hopefully the next star of Australian soccer.
Anyone interested in helping him is asked to call his mother Joanne on 0401 307 136.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff