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Yesterday, Australian football fans farewelled the most exciting player the A-League has seen.
In what has been the most successful and thrilling A-League season to date, Marco Rojas, who will now depart to play in Europe, been simply electrifying and a clear standout.
On Monday the Melbourne Victory attacker was adjudged by his A-League peers as the overwhelming winner of the Johnny Warren Medal, polling more than double the number of votes (908) of second-placed Alessandro Del Piero (449).
Much like the adoration reserved for the Italian legend back in his Serie A days, Rojas is admired by rival supporters across the country.
Such have been his sublime skills and his electrifying impact this season, even opposition fans have been left bewitched by his brilliance.
In terms of pure excitement, Rojas has arguably won over more fans to the Victory and the A-League this season than has been seen by an individual player before.
The likes of Del Piero, Harry Kewell, Dwight Yorke and Robbie Fowler have undoubtedly attracted greater numbers of new fans through the turnstiles, yet this has almost exclusively been due to the strength of their reputations.
Del Piero has certainly lit up the league with his performances this season, but in judging his impact on attracting punters, it’s impossible to separate his reputation from the mix.
Yet with Rojas, people have been turning out solely to see what wizardry he will unveil each week.
And the statistics clearly show season 2012/13 for the “Kiwi Messi” has been one of the best ever for an individual in the A-League.
He scored 15 goals (third best in the competition) and laid on eight assists (equal second best) to finish as the player directly involved in more goals (23) than any other this season.
To achieve that in just 25 games is an incredible feat.
But statistics, no matter how remarkable, can’t come close to explaining the magic Rojas has brought to Australian football over the last seven months.
His highlight reel from this season has been one that cannot be matched by any others in the history of the A-League.
He ticks all the boxes required of a footballing excitement machine.
First there’s the desire to take on defenders. Fans simply love attacking players who run at the opposition and Rojas has done that in spades this season with his pace and dribbling skills.
Second, there’s the penchant for trickery. Being one of the most diminutive players in the competition, the former Wellington ace has consistently called on his impressive bag of tricks to beat his marker.
A perfect example of this was the second of his two goals against Newcastle on March 3.
Receiving the ball with his back to goal in a congested penalty area, Rojas deftly and effortlessly shifted the ball from boot to boot to leave the entire Jets defence and goalkeeper utterly bamboozled and with no hope of preventing him from walking it through for a goal.
Thirdly, there have been the goals. And what a raft of incredible goals they’ve been.
There was the 25-yard piledriver against the Jets on December 28, followed by that ridiculous flick-spin-volley stunner later in the same match.
Then there were the blistering counter-attacking goals that came via his near-telepathic combination with Archie Thompson.
And fourthly, there’s his youth. The exhilarating actions of a player are automatically amplified when it’s someone in the beginning of their career.
So for Rojas to dominate the competition aged just 21, and to become the A-League’s youngest ever winner of the Johnny Warren Medal, it’s understandable so many fans fell in love with him.
Perhaps the only disappointing aspect of Rojas’s Melbourne Victory career was that former coaches Mehmet Durakovic and Jim Magilton abjectly failed in their responsibility to unleash this truly talented youngster last season.
While rival fans will be glad to know their teams will no longer be terrorised by Rojas, they will, and do, also share some of the sense of loss felt by Victory supporters in knowing that an amazing young player has left our shores.
The A-League will continue to enthral growing audiences, but it may be some time until we’re as captivated by a player as our “Kiwi Messi”.
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