Star midfielder Chloe Logarzo is preparing to return to Australia in November after signing for Western United’s inaugural Liberty A-League Women team last week.
The 54-times capped Matilda has been working her way back to fitness after an ACL injury last year and is eager to be a part of something special in the West.
“Western was definitely the best option for me overall. Not just for my football side, but for my life outside of football and a lot of things have gone into the decision,” she told Channel 10’s Tim Morgan last week.
“It was a long, drawn-out process but one I’m really, really excited about. There’s a lot of opportunity there that I’m excited to go start and be a part of.
With the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand drawing ever closer, Logarzo has done everything in her power to ensure she is ready for what she labelled a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.
What won’t be a once in a lifetime opportunity for Logarzo will be lining up for an inaugural team, this being the third time in her career.
“You don’t really get an inaugural season all over again and I would love to be able to give all of the wisdom that I’ve had from living and playing overseas in four different countries and put it into this Club where it can start from the roots and hopefully be a successful Club,” she said.
“It’ll be nice to be around a Club that has really, really strong values and who has a lot of ambition, and I think that’s the freshness I need in my life right now.”
Continuing her road back to full fitness, Logarzo has returned to the bench for Kansas City’s last two games in the National Women’s Soccer League.
The next step for her is to “be playing as many minutes as I possibly can”, and she identified the opportunity to be a key part of the team and complete a lot of running which further attracted her to the West.
Logarzo also detailed a conversation with head coach Mark Torcaso that gave her faith that Green and Black were the colours she wanted to pull on over the Australian summer.
“Mark said to me that he really wants to help me get into the position of being back in the national team, and I really needed a coach like that who really wants to heavily invest in what I want to be doing and get me into that position,” she said.
READ MORE: Mark Torcaso looking ahead to Western United debut after NPLW success
Despite still being only 27 years old, Logarzo will be one of the oldest and most experienced players in United’s inaugural side, with a host of young talent being recruited so far.
While the team may be inexperienced, Logarzo is confident if the culture is right from the beginning, the team can achieve great things in the competition.
“If you bring in this culture of being the underdog and having hard workers all around the field – it’s really hard to beat a team who wants to outwork you, no matter the skill level,” she said.
“If you come in and say ‘hey, we’re going to be the hardest workers in the league’ – let’s feed off that, I think it will surprise a lot of teams how well we will do.
“I think that’s the mentality that we can probably take to the A-League and use to our advantage. It’s going to be hard because we need to get everyone fit but if it works, it’ll shock everyone.”
Western United’s journey in the A-League Women is set to begin with a blockbuster clash against Melbourne Victory in the West. Join now as a Foundation Member and be part of history.
