Young defender Josh Risdon is hoping his decision to sign a new contract with Perth Glory can help him to fulfil a long-term ambition to make it as a professional footballer overseas.
Young defender Josh Risdon is hoping his decision to sign a new contract with Perth Glory can help him to fulfil a long-term ambition to make it as a professional footballer overseas.
The Glory announced on Thursday that Risdon had signed a new two-year contract with the club, which will keep him in Perth until the end of the 2013/14 Hyundai A-League season.
The 19-year-old has established himself as the Glory’s right-back this season after Scott Neville suffered a long-term injury early in the campaign and the Bunbury native has earned rave performance reviews from coach Ian Ferguson.
Now Risdon is hoping to build on his impressive start to his A-League career and continue to improve over the next two seasons.
“I want to make my name in the A-League and get a few seasons under myself here because I think I need to be more experienced before I go overseas,” Risdon said.
“I’m really happy to be where I’m at and I’m really enjoying my football … obviously it’s great to sign with the club for another two years.”
“My dream has always been to play overseas so once I get a bit older I would like to look overseas and see how things go over there.”
Ferguson said he had been delighted with Risdon’s effort this season and predicted he would develop well over the next few years.
“In the games that he’s come in and played he’s been outstanding. He’s a good tackler, he’s strong, he’s got good distribution and he’s a fantastic prospect for the club,” he said.
“[Young players like Risdon] have got to make sure they’re doing well in this league if they want to go onto the bigger level. If he can do this consistently I believe he’ll go onto a higher grade of football.”
Ferguson’s side faces Sydney FC on Saturday and the coach said he was likely to field an unchanged starting 11 from the one which continued Perth’s excellent form with a thrashing of Gold Coast on Monday.
“There’s a lot of confidence at the moment and if we want to be in the finals these are the sort of games we’ve got to try and win,” he said.
“We’ll play a high pressing game, we’ll get in their face and hopefully we can try and play the game in their half.”
Ferguson said Neville was on track to return to A-League action by the end of February but was likely to play two or three National Youth League games before making a first-team appearance.
Josh Mitchell has recently began running again in his quest to overcome lingering knee soreness, while Todd Howarth is still ‘a week to 10 days’ from returning.
