Dimitri Petratos

Petratos on the ball for the Sydney FC ( 2010)

Dimitrios " Dimitri " Petratos (* November 10, 1992 in Sydney) is an Australian- Greek football player.

Career

Youth

Petratos comes from a footballer family, his father Evangelos was active in the National Soccer League and two played in the years 2009 and 2010 together with Penrith Nepean United and Sydney Olympic in the NSW Premier League. Petratos attended the prestigious Westfields Sports High School and was promoted during his youth athletic of the Johnny Warren Football Foundation. In the years 2007 and 2008 he also received a scholarship from the NSW Institute of Sport.

Professional at Sydney FC

After he already played in the 2009/10 season for the youth team of the Sydney FC in the National Youth League, he was in the following season again for the youth team squad. Because of several injury -related failures in professional team came Petratos 7 November 2010 against Newcastle United Jets to his debut in the A-League. In the following weeks, the offensive player was regularly used and finally signed in January 2011, a professional contract more than two years after he was able to fight for a regular place in the team shortly before.

Particularly appreciated by coaches Vítězslav Lavička because of his versatility, he made until end of season with a spectacular goal against Gold Coast United and a double against the Central Coast Mariners in the limelight. Sydney finished the season as the reigning champion in ninth place in the standings and Petratos was highlighted as one of the few positive signs. In the following season 2011/12 Petratos had had problems and deployment time, the striker position was mostly occupied by Mark Bridge and Bruno Cazarine, the attacking midfield positions filled Terry Antonis and Nick Carle from. In one of his few missions from the start he scored against Brisbane Roar after only 36 seconds, and played a decisive role in the 2-0 win, as Brisbane after 36 league games for the first time went off as a loser.

During the season 2012/13, there was turmoil between Petratos and Sydney. After he was initially not taken into account under new coach Ian Crook in the senior squad and came only for the youth team to use his advisers publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the current situation and requested a transfer release. Before changing to the newly formed A- League club Western Sydney Wanderers had already failed in May 2012. There was also a discussion during a training session between Petratos and Zeljko Kalac goalkeeping coach, which was also transported to the public. The end of 2012, finally, club and player agreed to a premature termination of the contract.

Trip to Malaysia

In December 2012, Petratos signed a one -year contract with the Malaysian first division Kelantan FA. Since the Malaysian league only two foreigners per team allowed, and Kelantan coach Bojan Hodak Nigerian defender Obinna Nwaneri and the Guinean striker Keita Mandjou preferred, only inserts in the AFC Cup 2013 were possible for Petratos. Since he therefore had no chance of inserts start of the season in January, he spent on the mediation of the club president some time to workout at the English club Blackburn Rovers. End of February, he was summoned back from Kelantan for the group stage of the AFC Cup, scoring four goals in the sequence, as the club qualified as a table for the first knockout phase.

To his last competitive game for Kelantan Petratos came in May 2013 in the second round of the AFC Cup, when they eliminated by a 0-2 home defeat against Kitchee SC from the competition. In April, he had again missed the inclusion in the League squad because coach Hodak Dickson Nwakaeme gave preference over Petratos to replace Mandjou. A decision that was welcomed by the fans of the team with incomprehension.

Return to Australia

In June 2013, the Australian professional club Brisbane Roar announced the commitment of Petratos.

National

Petratos, who has already played for the Australian U -17, adopted in 2010 with the Australian U- 20 at the AFF U-19 Championship in part and achieved during the tournament, which closed Australia as the winner, a goal against South Korea. Shortly afterwards, he was also at the U- 19 Asian Cup 2010 squad, as Australia defeated the young players from North Korea with only 2:3 in the final. Following the success of the Australian U -20 was eligible to participate in the following year for the U- 20 World Cup in Colombia. Petratos came here in all three group games used, but Australia reached there only one point win and failed in the preliminary round

In qualifying for the Olympic football tournament in 2012 Petratos was used several times by Aurelio Vidmar in the U -23. Australia remained in all six games of the final qualifying phase without their own scoring and missed on the last place lying the finals appearance.