Ante Juric began his career in the national team alongside Muscat when the Victory great captained the Young Socceroos in 1993.

It was a stellar crop of players including Craig Moore, Paul Agostino and Ante Milicic who reached the semi finals of the World Youth Championships that year in Australia.

Juric, later capped four times as a Socceroo, played as a central defender in that team with Muscat at right back. He remembers Muscat fondly.

“He led by example on and off the field,” he told au.foufourtwo.com. “The biggest thing is that he’s a winner.

"Everyone can see that but he always rolled his sleeves up and wouldn’t ask you to do anything he wouldn’t do.

“He was a born leader and the thing is, the players followed. He didn’t ask them, they just followed because he lead by example.”

The former NSL grand final winner who is currently studying for his Masters, added that Muscat was one of the greatest leaders he’d seen in this country.

"That was a special Australian team and one of the reasons was our leadership," he said.

It’s a view shared by others. Current teammate Danny Allsopp told Victory's website of Muscat's "ruthless" desire to win while former Football Federation Victoria CEO Tony Pignata described Muscat as “irreplaceable in the A-League". 

Over the coming weeks, Muscat will sit down with FourFourTwo for an exclusive One-on-One chat for the magazine. Get your questions in and we’ll do our best to have the man himself answer them.

Meanwhile, Wednesday night’s crucial Asian Champions League clash with Gamba Osaka is the focus. Muscat and his teammates will be looking to build on the three points ground out against group leaders Tianjin Teda after a fiery clash in Melbourne last time out.

With two games left, it’s do-or-die for Victory. A win against Gamba and they’ll edge past the J-League club and head to South Korea to play Jeju United knowing they could still sneak through to the knockout stages.

A large crowd is expected to turn out at Docklands on Wednesday night to farewell one of the most talked about and respected figures in the A-League.