He’s just turned 29, but Brian Kaltak is in line to make his debut as a full time pro, at last, for Central Coast Mariners in the Australian A-League.
It’s taken the captain of Vanuatu’s national men’s team a good number of years to secure a professional deal, and when his trial with the Mariners was stalled by injury he feared his big chance may have been missed.
But he was invited back by the team’s English coach, Nick Montgomery, and impressed him enough to win a place in the squad.
Now after a career which has taken him from his native Vanuatu to Solomon Islands, Fiji, PNG, and notably Auckland City in New Zealand where he captained the side, the central defender has become the first player from his country to join Australia’s professional ranks.
He freely admits he wishes it had happened ten years earlier, but right now he’s out to impress in the hope that other, younger island players will follow him to Australia.
Source: ABC Pacific