De Niese was part of Los Millonarios since he was 14 and spent six years at the South American giants before making the heart wrenching decision to leave the club to get first team football.

After interest from Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets, the 20-year-old decided to return to his home town of Melbourne where he spent six weeks trialing with City.

Tragedy struck during his first trial match when he injured his knee and tore his ACL.

A gruelling rehabiltation process of more than five months now sees De Niese close to playing again and the talented midfielder believes if injury hadn’t cruelled his progress he would've secured a spot with City.

“My personal opinion is I think I would have been playing A-League by the end of the year,” he told FourFourTwo.

“When I came back home in April I went straight into Melbourne City and I was supposed to sign when the transfer window opened which was in May.

"Because I wasn’t signed everything just got left in the air. I’ve had a word with the coach and he said he is happy for me to come back when I’m in full training and see how I go.

“It’s been quite a hard ride at the moment.”

De Niese was the first Australian to play for River Plate and from the age of 14 fought his way into the reserves squad.

He ended up playing 60 games for the youth team and was the top scorer when he was in the under 18 side but his nationality prevented his ability to stay.

“I only had temporary residency which allowed me to play until the reserves,” he said. “But to play first team I would have had to take one of the international spots which wasn't available.

"I was training in the reserves and the first team and there were only four international spots and those were marquee players like Rodriga Mora, Eder Balanta, Teo Guitierrez and Camilo Mayada.

“I asked the coach if I was able to be released as I just saw myself training and getting to a certain level and not being able to progress any further in my career.”

Since De Niese has been injured Melbourne City have increased their Argentinean contingent and are on the lookout for more.

“Once I left City they brought Fernando Brandan and now they are looking at buying Nicolas Colazo from Boca Juniors,” De Niese said.

 “I’ve watched both of them play when I was in Argentina. Brandan is really good as a number 10 from Atletico Temperley and they’ve been doing really good in Argentina. And Colazo he’s a good player, he’s won the league with Boca.

“I just have to see what happens if I go back to City or wherever I go I wouldn’t mind giving the Argentinean flavour to the A-League.”