At 28, Rizzo is still hopeful of making a return to the Australia side and he believes a strong season and the Socceroo's intense match schedule in Asia will help his cause.

“Perth Glory had been ringing me for a while to be honest but I didn’t make my decision until May. I wanted to try and get back into the national team if I can and I’ve seen that there are four [A-League] players in the squad at the moment and I’m enjoying it so far.

“There’s going to be a lot of games throughout Asia and some of them won’t have all the top European players coming back so there might be an opportunity there.

"It’s definitely a target but I don’t really know. I thought I might have more chance by playing in the A-League than playing in League One in England.”

Rizzo is also excited about two more prospects - Perth Glory’s upcoming season and the chance to face his old team mate, Robbie Fowler.

After having time to evaluate his new team and surroundings, Rizzo says he is confident that the new-look Glory side can reverse last season’s poor showing to qualify for the Finals Series.

Rizzo completed a full match for Glory in his side’s 1-0 win against Newcastle in the Pre-Season Cup on the weekend and says that Glory now has what it takes.

“I have to admit I didn’t expect the players to be as good as what I’ve seen. I’ve been very impressed. There are some good players, very physical players,” he admitted to au.fourfourtwo.com

“I met up with the boys in Malaysia on their pre-season tour and we’ve had quite a few rigorous training sessions. The facilities, everything… it’s all top notch and very professional. The transitional period has been easy.”

Rizzo says Ron Smith’s tactical know-how and Glory’s new attackers will be the keys to a successful season.

“Ron gets his message across. He’s very good tactically. We do a lot of tactical work during training sessions and he gives DVDs to certain players to maybe help them improve their games. I’ve been very impressed with him, I can see why he’s involved with the Socceroos.

“I think we’re going to be an attacking team [this season],” he continued. “We’ve got some quick players and attackers - we have a young and exciting team. We’ll excite a few crowds definitely."

If Sydney FC is successful in their bid to bring Robbie Fowler to the harbour city, Rizzo is one opposition player who will relish facing the English star.

Nick Rizzo has had a remarkable career, which took him to Liverpool as a teenager. While there, Fowler made quite an impression on the young Australian. Not surprisingly, he still rates Fowler amongst the best he has seen.

“I was at Liverpool at the same time [he was there]. It’d be good to see him again actually… it’s been a while! He’s a fantastic player. He was at the peak of his career when I was there.

"His goal-scoring ability was second to none. To this day I still haven’t seen a player strike a ball as well as he did. He used to be able to hit the ball with no back lift. It was frightening, actually. He was one of the best strikers in the world.

”At the time I was in the first team squad. I was only a young boy and obviously he was a lot older than me but I used to train with him everyday. He was a really nice guy. Most of the Liverpool blokes were. He used to take care of the younger ones… I was only 17 or 18 then.”

Perth Glory’s next Pre-Season Cup match will be against Adelaide United this Friday night at Hindmarsh Stadium.