Zawko, from Adelaide, followed the path of many teenage Aussie footballers when he left the NPL for an opportunity in Europe.

In 2016 at the age of 18 the forward swapped White City FC for a spot in the academy of Italian lower division side L’Aquila.

Fast forward four years later and Zawko is now in Serie D with Chieti FC.

While this season has been called off because of the pandemic, the attacker has his sights on his next destination in the land of Meazza, Maldini, Baggio and Zoff.

"I’m looking for another club in Italy,” he told FTBL.

"I’m just trying to get as high [up the football pyramid] as I can as quickly as possible. I’ve been in contact with some third division teams, that’s the aim at the moment.”

Zawko has battled it all in his time in Italy, from homesickness to the language barrier, to not being paid, to being viewed as an outsider.

But he has persevered and refused to give up.

“The experience has been really good. It’s tough - when I came the first time I didn’t speak any Italian at all,” he admitted.

"When I first came it was pretty tough but it became easier. When I first came I was kind of an outsider. You get one chance to make a good impression with the coach. If you don’t play well early in the pre-season you won’t get much of a chance.

"But once you start playing, if you do well they don’t care. It’s a lot different here. They’re football-mad. The quality is so much higher than what I was used to in Adelaide.

“Coming to Italy has been hard, but I feel like considering how defensive Italy is seen as a football country, I feel like I’ve had to up my game and learn a lot.”

Zawko grew up in South Australia and played for local Adelaide clubs Salisbury Villa, Port Adelaide and Eastern United.

His European journey originally began at the youth team of L’Aquila in Abruzzo. Zawko moved on to spells with San Gregorio in the sixth division, and then Real Guilianova.

“I did pretty well in that season, scored a couple of important goals and the team that won the league signed me up for the next season, Guilianova,” he said.

But financial problems hit the club and the striker was on the move to Chieti FC.

He would eventually link with Serie D side Gladiator, before it too ran into financial issues.

“It’s pretty common here, teams with financial difficulties,” Zawko concedes.

“Gladiator is a pretty good team. But again there were the same sort of problems.”

After six months with CD Alumecar City in Spain, the centre forward returned to Italy at the start of 2020.

Now off-contract, he is hunting for a new club.

“At the end of the season I was in Spain, but I wasn’t getting too much out of it there so I came back to Chieti,” Zawko explained.

“I arrived in January. I didn’t have much time with the team [before the Coronavirus hit]. Everything’s easing up now. Things are starting to reopen. It’s a bit calmer.

“When it first came in everything got shut down, now the worst is over.”

Still just 22, Zawko is aming to keep his Italian ascension going.

“I’m still not where I want to be, but I’m getting there slowly,” he said.

“I want to get to Serie A. Hopefully in the next couple of years - that’s what I’m aiming for.”