After three years with Jong Ajax, Pasquali’s ‘potential’ has shifted remarkably. The 19-year-old made nearly 30 appearances across four competitions last season, including seven in the Eerste Divisie (the Dutch second division, which Ajax’s youth team won).

These statistics seemingly kept Pasquali on track to reach lofty, Harry Kewell-esque expectations, but the boy who left Australia a flashy attacking midfielder is now playing largely as a centreback. And even that isn’t guaranteeing game-time.

After a phenomenal run at the beginning of the season featured the 19-year-old in six out of eight matches, Pasquali’s defensive switch appeared to have paid dividends. At least, of course, if the 176-centimetre Australian wants to be a centreback.

But then disaster struck, in the form of a 4-3 loss to Utrecht’s U/21s. Pasquali played the entire match at centrehalf, and hasn’t played a single minute of the club’s nine games since. For six of those matches, Pasquali hasn’t featured in the squad.

What’s next for Wangaratta’s greatest footballing export is less clear than ever. Bar the A-League comfort blanket that, as Danny De Silva can attest, often doesn’t fit quite as snugly second time around - the cut-throat world of modern football has little sympathy for 19-year-olds with no first team experience.

But, even if the Ajax conveyor belt sucks Pasquali in, chews him up and spits him out; it will at least ready him for the unforgiving world of modern football.

In the meantime, like his peers beckoning from places as similarly isolated from football’s elite as Morocco, Burkina Faso and South Africa, Pasquali has come too far to give up now.

“I know that when I’m ready, I’ll get my chance in the first team,” he said. “I’ve just got to keep focused and keep giving my best every day.

“I know I’ll get my chance.”