Heidelberg United's 24-year-old striker put in another brilliant season with the Victorian NPL Premiers and on Saturday the club announced the topflight had taken notice.

It was Athiu's strike in the Bergers 1-0 win over Glory in August that sent the Western Australians tumbling out of the FFA Cup and caused one of the biggest Cupsets in the history of the national knockout competition.

Athiu,who arrived in Australia with his family at the age of 11 from war-torn South Sudan, picked up NPL Victoria's 2017 Golden Boot wth 21 goals and was named the Player's Player of the Year.

The fact that the attacker has taken so long to make the leap to the A-League has left many fans and pundits scratching their heads.

After his FFA Cup heroics Heidelberg coach George Katsakis told neoskosmos.com he had developed tremendously from the young kid he saw in action for Box Hill three seasons ago.

"He's just a quality kid to have around the rooms," Katsakis said.

"He doesn't get ahead of himself and works towards targets. This year those targets have paid off.

"He's just a hardworking kid who listens, develops in areas where he needs to strengthen and putting all that together he's been able to be the leading scorer of this state and scoring some very important goals at all levels."