Eliopoulos knocked back a spot with Melbourne City’s youth team to stay with Northcote.

“I was training with Melbourne City in the NPL 2,” he said.

“They offered me a contract. Looking back at it I probably should have stayed, but I wanted to play NPL 1 at the time. I was young and I thought if I could play against men and at a better quality of football it would develop myself more.

“I’m not sure it was the best decision to make, but I’m not regretting it now.”

After three years with Northcote Eliopoulos eventually moved on to Port Melbourne. It was from there in 2016 where he was spotted and headed to Cyrpus on trial.

“I was 19 at the time. I had a few good seasons in the NPL and then got a phone call from an agent who knew APOEL were looking for a defender,” he said.

APOEL are the biggest club in Cyprus. They have won 28 national league titles and are the only Cypriot club to have reached the knockout stages of both the UEFA Champions League and the Europa League.

“They said it's in the youth team but if you do well there’s an opportunity to go into the first-team. So I thought I’d come over for a trial. I had a two-week trial, I did really well, scored in my first game.

“And the coach said we want to sign you. So I had to get my Greek passport sorted then I signed a deal with the youth team. I played every game, I did really well in the youth team.

“Then in January I started training with the first-team. The coach Thomas Christiansen was impressed with me. I was on the bench for the first-team five times, during their Europa Cup run.

“But I had a constant issue with my groin. I was breaking down a bit. I was diagnosed with osteitis pubis. So I had to just stop doing anything. I was two months out and that put me behind the eight ball.”

Injury cruelled Eliopoulos’s chance of a breakthrough at the Cypriot giants, and he ended up departing APOEL in August 2017.

“At the end of the season I was waiting to see if they were going to offer me a new deal,” he said.

“Then the coach got sacked and I didn’t really have a manager at the time. My youth team coach left the club as well and I didn’t really have a connection at the club anymore.

“It was my first time in this situation and I didn’t really know how to deal with it. I was left wondering what to do. I just knew I needed to play games, as I was 20. You can’t just be playing in youth teams.

“So I offered to come to the second division and get as many games as I could. I did that, played a full season with PAEEK and from there I signed with ASIL Lysi. Had a good season last year and this year we were trying to get promoted.”