The La Liga giants are visiting Australia for the first time for their International Champions Cup (ICC) pre-season campaign where they face Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.

Subsequently a big turnout is expected in Geelong on Sunday when Atletico travel to regional Victoria to play a friendly against A-League glamour club Melbourne Victory.

Filipe Luis was honest and bold in stating his loyalty to Atletico, but was also realistic about his age and where his career could finish up. The Brazilian international’s career peaked in between 2010 and 2014 with Los Rojiblancos before a brief stint with Chelsea saw him return to the Spanish capital.

“Australian football is getting better right? The improvement, they like football here and they want to get better, so for me why not come here one day?” Filipe Luis said.

“For me it’s really difficult because I want to finish my career with Atletico, but why I can never say no to anything, but I really want to retire with Atletico at this point.

“Melbourne is good, first time I’ve been to Australia, so I’m really happy to be here for the first time. It was a really long flight, football sometimes gives you this good opportunity to know places.”

Combatively with teammate Tiago, the Portuguese international acknowledged the end of his career wasn’t far away.

The 35-year-old had already travelled to Melbourne for a friendly in 2008 with former Serie A club Juventus which finished 4-1 at Etihad Stadium.

After touching down on Thursday morning, Tiago complimented the city of Melbourne and said if the opportunity was presented to him to play in the A-League he would consider it.

“Melbourne is a very good place to visit, football does this with new towns, new places. Melbourne is very far from where we are, but it’s a very good experience. I was here seven years and it’s the same beautiful city and it’s a pleasure to be back,” Tiago said.

“You never know, I played with Alessandro Del Piero at Juventus and he came here. So you never know what the future brings to you, now I’m very good at Atletico Madrid, in the future you never know if I have the opportunity, why not? For sure, it would be a good experience.”