The club hope to increase their community presence beyond last year's 1,000 hours of local visits with the addition of Reid to the outreach team.

Reid will join existing Sydney FC Community Officer Daniel Barrett in spearheading the connection with Sydney's football community, joining the club's A-League and W-League players at junior clubs, schools and Community events.

“I’m really enjoying being here as a Community Football Officer,” Reid said. “Every club I’ve been to throughout my career I’ve been actively involved in their Community Program so I really enjoy going out and teaching kids and going to clubs and schools.

“I’ve been a past player so hopefully that experience can help improve the Community Program. I know Sydney FC, and I think they have the best run Community Program in the A-League and I’d like to expand that and be involved in that.

“I’m a radiographer by trade but these opportunities don’t come up very often, so I thought I’d take it. I can always go back to radiography but hopefully I can be in this role for a very long time.”

Reid’s appointment is also in line with the recent commitment by Football Federation Australia and Professional Footballers Australia to offer players a career pathway after football.

“The Sydney FC Community Program is a crucial part of our fan engagement and the arrival of Paul Reid shows we are serious in putting extra resources into the program at grassroots level,” said Sydney FC CEO Toy Pignata.

“We now have two full time Development Officers working with the A-League and W-League players to take Sydney FC, the A-League and W-League to the grassroots community.

“Paul’s role is also a good illustration of the career pathways for elite football players when they bring down the curtain on the A-League career.”