The beginning…

When I think back to when I was 12-13, I played soccer in the morning and AFL in the afternoon on Sundays. I loved Aussie rules, but I had a few bad injuries and a couple of knocks to the head. I had to pick a sport and in Grade 6, the 2006 World Cup came around and it really pushed me to play soccer. It’s probably what made me dream of hopefully one day being able to do the same thing as those guys were doing back in 06.

Training with the big boys as an 18-year-old...

I always hoped I’d play for Melbourne Victory and I never thought it would happen at 16-and-a-half. I signed my first contract and I’ll always remember walking into the dressing room with Archie Thompson, Adrian Leijer and Kevin Muscat looking at me. I was in awe of them as a teenager. I’ll never forget the day Archie gave me a lift to see my mates in the city when I was 16… and hey, I never thought I’d be in Portugal playing football either.

Today….

I’m currently playing for Clube Desportivo de Tondela and it is in the district of Viseu. It’s about a 20 minute drive to the stadium and the city is really pretty. It’s not exactly a big city, but it’s peaceful and it’s got enough to keep you busy during the day. There are a lot of beautiful places to see here, Porto is one of my favourite places to go and it’s only an hour away!

I’m now used to how the football is played in Portugal. I remember my first day in pre-season and my teammates were fired up and ready to go. I was just thinking “geez, this is pretty intense!” There were tackles flying in and the tempo was so quick.

Training with my teammates. Source: CD Tondela Facebook

If you do make mistakes here, most of the times you will get punished and that’s probably the biggest difference for me. The general quality of the players here is technically very good and the speed of the game is so fast, you can get caught out easily if you’re not concentrating. It’s been challenging, but now I feel pretty comfortable while playing and I have definitely improved in the past six months.

Fabio Coentrao is one of the biggest players I’ve played against here, an ex-Real Madrid player. We played Sporting Lisbon and lost 2-0. Ex-Barcelona defender Jeremy Mathieu scored a free kick against us. You instantly have a lot of respect for those players for their achievements, but once the game starts, you forget about it. After the game, you do reflect on things, you really do respect those players and think “geez, they were playing for Barcelona and Real last year”.

I’ve had a few unfortunate hamstring injuries, but I’ve managed 10 games for Tondela. There’s some healthy competition with all the defenders and sometimes you’d get comfortable without it. We’ve got Ricardo Costa the centre back who’s our captain driving us on, he’s won a Champions League, Bundesliga title and played for Portugal.

A new perspective and a new friend…

Leaving Melbourne at 23 was a good age for me. I’m 24 now and I had lived at home my whole life. I knew I was ready to move out. If I left earlier, I still think it would’ve been OK for me, but I’m a grown man now, so the transition has been seamless and I’m quite happy living alone. Speaking Portuguese is all good from the football side of things. I speak Portuguese while I’m playing, but I’m still not fluent for general conversation. The lessons have been good, but it’s not the easiest language to learn.

Our Kiwi striker Tyler Boyd lives upstairs in my apartment block, so we’re very close, but we also get our own space. He has said to me a few times “it’s been great to have you around” because he left Wellington Phoenix in 2015. For me, it would be difficult without him because he’s helped me acclimatise to the culture and lifestyle. He can also speak fluent Portuguese and he’s been able to tutor me at times.

 

The village 👌🏻

A post shared by Nick Ansell (@nickansell) on

 

I was playing a game against Rio Ave and I came out after half-time and it was that cold, I was almost struggling to move! I then said to Tyler: “I’ll never wear gloves while I’m training or playing” and we’ve got dinner on it, so if I ever cave in, I’ll have to buy him dinner! I’m holding out at this stage. I’ll admit I’ve been very close to putting on gloves. Tyler puts on his gloves, his neck scarf, his beanie and he’s got everything like a little girl!

I kicked goals and I want to continue kicking goals…

Throwback to representing the Young Socceroos in 2011...

Sometimes when football isn’t going so great, I end up thinking about the good times which was winning A-League Championship and the Premiers Plate in 2015. It’s good to look back on the good times in football, because it’s not always good, you get injuries or maybe you’re not playing… I always flick through old photos and winning the title will always be one of my biggest achievements I’ll have in my career. I played over 20 games that year, so I had a big part to play in it. I reflect on it a lot actually… more than you’d think.

People like to talk about bolters for the Socceroos and it’s great a new coach has been appointed and everyone now knows who they need to impress. It’s everyone’s dream to play in a World Cup and if I can continue and get more game time here in the Portugese Primeira Liga, you never know what can happen, so I’m just trying to improve and if I’m called upon, I’ll be ready and it would be a dream come true if that happens.

As told to Clement Tito