The former Italian based defender has been training with cross-town rivals Melbourne Victory over the last couple of months.

But with no deal on the table, he has now inked a short-term arrangement with the red and whites.

It’s tipped that the contract will last until the commencement of the Asian pre-season in early 2012 when the player is expected to join a K-League outfit.

Meanwhile Joel Griffiths is set to take a break from football, with his agent predicting the one-time Newcastle Jets hero will never return to play in the A-League again.

Both Sydney FC and his former club Newcastle Jets - which is also home to Joel's brother Ryan - had hoped to snare the striker to bring his goalscoring skills back to Australia.

Sydney FC's assistant coach Ian Crook had been speaking to Griffiths about a potential short-term move over the Aussie summer as the pair are close after working together at Newcastle.

But Griffiths is set to snub Sydney and the Jets in favour of a rest, before signing a new deal in China which may or may not be with his current club Beijing Guoan.

Griffiths's agent Ante Ailovic of Entourage Management confirmed the 32-year-old is poised to remain in China.

After also ruling out a permanent move to Griffiths’ former club Newcastle, Ailovic said the wisest course of action for Joel was to recover in Australia over the coming months before inking a new deal ahead of CSL pre-season in February.

“I spoke to him last night about it. He’s going to stay in China. There’s plenty of interest over there,” Ailovic told au.fourfourtwo.com.

Griffiths has become a star in China over the past three seasons. He’s put aside some initial discipline issues to score freely with 2011 in particular a standout. 

The former Jet and one-time Socceroo has bagged 11 goals this campaign and has become a firm fan favourite in the green shirt of Beijing.

Any new deal will likely keep him in China for at least another two years or perhaps longer.

“He doesn’t want to come back at the moment. He likes it there in Beijing. The fans love him and the lifestyle’s really good for him. I’ve received no complaints from him,” added Ailovic.

“I don’t think he’ll come back at his age. His best bet is to stay in China."

However talented NSW grand final winner David Gullo last night flew to Europe where he will trial with the Czech Republic side Slovan Liberec.

The 19-year-old Sydney Olympic midfielder and former Sydney FC youth player had an eye-catching season with the all-conquering Blues and will train with the Czech club for around 10 days.

It’s unclear whether Gullo will return for Olympic’s exhibition match in Melbourne against South Melbourne on December 11 to mark the redevelopment of the club’s HQ at Lakeside.

In other news, the Malaysian U23 squad are set to tour NSW next month with friendlies set to be scheduled against Central Coast Mariners and Sydney FC.,