Ex-Socceroo Ceccoli, who played for AEK in 1999 and scored one of the season's best goals with a 35m rocket, left the club disillusioned after barely a season in Athens.

"When I read that Nathan had signed there I was a little disappointed for him I guess," the former Socceroo told au.fourfourtwo.com.

"I wish Nathan luck. I hope it all goes well but I was a bit disappointed for him.

"Hopefully things have changed there. Initially things were good for me, but the state of Greek football then, I mostly got the runaround.

"My experience in the end was pretty bad. I had a four-year deal but I turned it over because of the way things were transpiring."

Ceccoli, 33, a former Sydney FC, Wollongong Wolves and Avispa Fukuoka player, now playing in the Illawarra Premier League with Dandaloo, says his stint in Athens was not all bad, but internal politics and team selections soured his time in the Greek Super League.

"I got my money, it's not as if I didn't get paid - it was just the way the club was being run, the influence that certain players had, selection criteria and the coach.

"At the time they were going through a funny period. They were reliant on foreigners but they were sort of unwilling to use them. And some of the other foreign players had real calibre with two of my former teammates going on to play for Arsenal.

"In the end, the side went well and that was when the foreign players were being played. It was weird, the manager would come in and talk to us [foreign players] as a group saying, 'we expect you to play', and we were like 'well play us!'.

"Then the next day you still wouldn't be playing. In the end, we qualified for the Champions League, but prior to that we were going pretty poor."

Ceccoli's AEK still has some good memories of the stint, which saw him play four times for the club, after starring for NSL and hometown club Wollongong Wolves.

"The Greek league was very good. We had games in Europe against Partizan Belgrade, Steau Bucharest...we drew 1-1 with Partizan and we beat Steau.

"The league's good for the top teams and stadiums but once you filter down it starts to get really poor. But the AEK fans are marvellous."

And Ceccoli gave his advice to the Adelaide starlet: "Don't isolate yourself in your hotel in the early stages.

"You can't just go to training, go home, train, go home, play PlayStation for eight hours. It's like a little cave and you think, 'what am I doing here?' It's important to settle into the environment.

"Nathan's got the capability to move on to a bigger league in Europe. It's a good stepping stone for him."

Ceccoli himself continues to star in the Illawarra Premier League allowing him more time with his young family. And he has a new clothing store opening in Fairy Meadow called Funky Lil Munkyz after selling his newsagency.

But he has not lost hope of an A-League return – potentially with a South Coast United A-League club.

"I still think I can play for another two or three good years in the A-League. I noticed John Kosmina in the paper saying he's lacking left sided players but they're not interested [in me].

"But every coach has an opinion."