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Rejuvenated Federici is fit and firing

Adam Federici left Australia as a teenager to mix it with the big dogs. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Expert
17th November, 2014
6

Adam Federici only has two game faces – the Blue Steel/Gladiator combination that precedes a walloping roar of either angst or passion; and the wide-eyed grin of a boy from Nowra still giddy at the path his life has taken.

Even at 29, the Huskisson Soccer Club junior still affords himself a moment or several each week to bask in the fruits of a laborious route to the top.

It is Federici’s humility and fervour that has endeared him to Reading fans, characteristics that stem from a whirlwind one-way trip from Australia as a 17-year-old.

The four years between setting foot in Europe and signing for Reading on a non-contract basis in January 2005 thickened his skin.

“Not a lot of people back home know the story I went along to come to Reading,” Federici told The Roar. “But it’s been a great experience and I’ve had a lot of success along the way so it’s a special place for me and always will be.

“I left AIS at 17, there wasn’t really a league to go to in Australia so I had no choice but to go overseas. I didn’t get signed until I was 21 so I spent those years in between just travelling around Europe going from club to club, sleeping on floors and in airports and whatever. It took a bit of time to get my foot in the door but when I did I made the most of it.

“What kept me going was the fact that I never got the opportunity to play. I went to all of these clubs – and I’m talking a lot of clubs – and they all said ‘you’re good enough, but you’ve got no experience’.

“I wasn’t going to go home until I got an opportunity to play. Sure, there were times when I was sitting in an airport in Italy or in the middle of nowhere and mum and dad were on the phone and it did get tough, but I wasn’t going to go home.

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“A lot of people see players that go to big clubs from Australia and it looks really easy but there are more people like myself and I’ve had to work extremely hard for what I’ve got.

“The last couple of years in particular, I’ve really appreciated that. I’ve played a lot of games for Reading and at a high level, and I’ve managed to play a few games for my country and done myself proud every time I’ve put the shirt on.”

If he puts it into words one day, he quips, it’ll make quite the read. Particularly the years he spent crashing on a Reading teammate’s couch and playing non-league football just to pay his bills.

The benefit for Federici was that although he was rejected countless times, he was never shunned. In fact, ex-Arsenal striker and former Wallsall manager Paul Merson admitted he had wanted to sign the gloveman after a lengthy trial, only for the then-chairman to intervene.

No stranger to setbacks, Federici received another one last season. Already out of favour with then-Reading manager Brian McDermott as English youngster Alex McCarthy stepped into the frame, an ankle injury proved the final deterrent for Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou as the World Cup approached.

As ever, Federici saw opportunity rather than obstacle and made the most of having a full pre-season.

Although Reading headed into the international break in the wrong half of the Championship ladder, the plaudits have come thick and fast as Royals fans salivate over the return of the Federici they admired during the club’s most recent Premier League sojourn.

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“It’s been quite tough for us to start with,” he said. “We lost a lot of experienced players in the summer so we’re kind of rebuilding a team at the minute. The performance has been a little bit up and down but I’ve been playing quite well and have had a lot to do in recent games so I’m quite pleased with my form.

“We’ve got a lot of good players, it’s just a matter of finding consistency week in, week out. It’s quite tough in the Championship with the amount of games you play.

“From my experience, if you don’t win a couple you end up sliding down the table quite quickly. But equally, when you win a couple you go quite far up the table. That’s the beauty of the Championship, you’re never quite out of it.”

Although Postecoglou was never likely to take a third goalkeeper to Japan this week, there are significant doubts about Federici’s candidacy for the Asian Cup.

Should his rich vein of form continue, there will be no doubt he deserves to be in Australia come January. But with his Reading contract due to expire at season’s end, Federici is well aware he can ill afford time away at one of the most critical junctures of the Championship campaign, particularly if it is merely as a third choice.

“I’m on the last year of my contract here so if I’m available, that’d be great but ultimately I’m an experienced goalkeeper that loves playing so I’m not one to sit around on the bench.

“January is a big time for us and I’ve got six months left on my contract so I need to be playing.

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“I don’t particularly enjoy watching, I love being part of it and putting myself out there to be judged. That will be part of the consideration. But you never know, I’m just trying to play the best football I can this season and we’ll see what happens at the end of it.”

In the interim, Federici has his eyes firmly on a return to the Premier League, blazing the trail left my close friend and lifelong idol Mark Schwarzer.

As for the World Cup in four years time? “With the World Cup in a few more years, I’ll try and make sure I don’t give people a decision to make.”

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