One man who knows just how passionate Australians are about football is former West Ham United favourite Alessandro Diamanti.
The flamboyant Italian brought down the curtain on a memorable 23-year career in April, when he played his 596th and final game in the city the Hammers will visit for a two-match pre-season tour next week – Perth, Western Australia.
Diamanti, who spent a year with West Ham between August 2009 and August 2010, moved to Australia with his wife and three children in 2019.
The left-footed forward joined newly launched Melbourne-based A-League club Western United, where he was appointed captain. At the age of 36, Diamanti excelled, winning the Johnny Warren Medal for the A-League’s best player.
After four successful seasons, Diamanti announced his retirement in April, making his final appearance in a 2-1 victory over Perth Glory before hanging up his boots just four days short of his 40th birthday.
A few months on, the former Italy international is hoping to be back in the City of Light to cheer on the team he scored eight goals in 30 games for, earning cult hero status among the Claret and Blue Army, when they take on Perth Glory (Saturday 15 July) and Tottenham Hotspur (Tuesday 18 July) at the 61,000-capacity Optus Stadium.
“With my family, I’m now enjoying their beautiful experience of living in Australia,” he said. “We’ve got a great quality of life and our daughters Aileen and Olivia and son Taddeo have fantastic opportunities and a good education ahead of them in a wonderful country. It’s in Taddeo’s DNA to play the game and, at only nine-years-old, I love watching the carefree way in which he enjoys kicking a football around.
“We’ve still got great friends in London and my former Italy international team-mate, Angelo Ogbonna, has just sent him the latest Hammers shirt!”
Reflecting on his own time in east London, Diamanti said the presence of another Italian, Gianfranco Zola, helped him overcome any cultural or sporting barriers to settle quickly in a new country.
“Having the chance to play in the Premier League was the opportunity of a lifetime,” he recalled. “I knew all about the Club and its supporters and, of course, one of our greatest-ever Italian footballers, Gianfranco Zola, was the manager. It was a good feeling to know that he wanted me to play for him and I can remember being 100% excited at the possibility coming to London, even though I realised it would take two or three months adjust.
“There are obviously two very different styles between Serie B and the Premier League and Gianfranco really helped me to understand what I needed to do to adapt from playing in the Italian second division to the top-flight in England.”
West Ham’s struggles in the Premier League saw Zola depart in the summer of 2010 and, following a message from then-Italy coach Cesare Prandelli to move to Serie A to improve his own international chances, Diamanti returned to his homeland, signing for Brescia.
While he went on to play for Italy at UEFA Euro 2012, scoring the winning penalty in a shootout win over England, 13 years on, he admits it leaving east London is a decision he still partially regrets.
“The East End was a beautiful place and it was a dream to play at the Boleyn Ground, where every match proved an emotional experience,” he reminisced. “Hopefully, the Hammers supporters enjoyed everything I tried to do for them during my year with the Club.
2009/10 was about the team and securing survival, not personal achievements, but I was so proud when those fans voted me runner-up in the Hammer of the Year awards behind Scott Parker – another very good man, who I respect so much.
“In life, we make our choices – they either prove to be the right decisions or mistakes.
I still tell everyone in every interview that the biggest regret of my entire career is that I only played for one year before joining Brescia in August 2010. Certainly, I should’ve stayed for longer.
“On the other hand, I achieved my ambition of playing for Italy, winning 17 caps and a runners-up medal at Euro 2012, where I scored the winning penalty in the quarter-final against Scott and Robert Green’s England during another thrilling penalty shootout between our two countries. Perhaps it wasn’t such a bad choice in the end?!”
