Krishna’s winning goal for Wellington against Brisbane last weekend put the Phoenix two points outside the top six and took the 29-year-old’s tally to 10 which is the striker's best return in his A-League career.

While Krishna’s pre-season ambition of winning the A-League golden boot may be out of his reach (Victory striker Besart Berisha leads with 17) the Fijian’s goal of inspiring footballers in the Pacific is on track.

“I like being a good role model,” he said speaking exclusively to FourFourTwo.

 “That gives me motivation to perform each week and make these young fans and talented players from Fiji to come up and play at a professional level.”

“We’ve got talent in the Pacific and in Fiji at the moment. I may be the only one playing at a professional level but the national team squad is strong and there will be a lot of talented players coming through in the future that hopefully can play in the A-League.”

Besides his exploits in the A-League, Krishna said playing at last year’s Rio Olympics for the Fijian National Team was the seminal moment of his career.

“To be part of that competition with the best players in the world like Neymar for example was very special,” he said.

“I gained a lot of experience. We had a great learning experience individually as players even though most of them are not professional.

“We were feeling very special to be playing in that tournament playing against teams like Germany, Mexico and South Korea. Playing against the likes of Son who was playing for Tottenham who we normally watch on TV was something special.”

Krishna said the highlight of the tournament was scoring Fiji's first ever goal at an Olympic Games.

“It was an amazing feeling to create history and it is something that I will cherish through the whole of my career,” he said.

“Especially against Germany. When we were 1-0 up at half time we were thinking that we were the best team in the world. It was a great experience not only for me but the whole of Fiji who were part of the Olympics and the boys really enjoyed every second of it.

“We lost every game by a good margin but after the Rugby Seven’s boys won the Gold medal we just felt like we won the Olympic medal as well.”

Krishna said the reaction in Fiji made the players feel like they were heroes.

“I went back home to see my family and they were pretty happy with me,” he said.  

“Every Fijian were proud of us and wherever we went they congratulated us on our performance and especially with me scoring that goal. It was something special for all Fijians.”