Luis Marcus Nicola Lawrie-Lattanzio (born 20 February 2002) is an Australian

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays for Campbelltown City in

NPL South Australia The National Premier Leagues South Australia (often abbreviated to NPL South Australia or NPL SA) is a semi-professional football competition in the Australian state of South Australia. The league is a subdivision of the second tier National P ...

. As of January 2023, he remains the only active indigenous male professional soccer player from South Australia.

Early life

Lawrie-Lattanzio was born in Adelaide, Australia to an Indigenous Australian mother and Italian father. His mother was born in Kimba, South Australia but was raised in Eucla, Western Australia (492km away) where his maternal family were originally from. His paternal grandparents hailed from the Italian provinces of

Basilicata it, Lucano (man) it, Lucana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

and

Abruzzo Abruzzo (, , ; nap, label=Neapolitan language, Abruzzese Neapolitan, Abbrùzze , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; nap, label=Sabino dialect, Aquilano, Abbrùzzu; #History, historically Abruzzi) is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy wi ...

. Lawrie-Lattanzio mainly grew up in the city of Adelaide, where he attended Blackfriars Priory School in

Prospect Prospect may refer to: General * Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer * Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team * Prospect (mining ...

. He peaked interest in numerous sports, regularly participating in

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

, athletics and soccer. He holds an Italian passport through his father.

Club career

Youth career

Lawrie-Lattanzio played youth soccer with Metrostars, before joining the Football South Australia National Training Centre program. Afterwards, he joined the youth system of Adelaide United, before later joining Melbourne Victory FC. He had a prominent season in the

2019–20 Y-League The 2019–20 Y-League season (also known as the 2019–20 Foxtel Y-League season for sponsorship reasons) was the twelfth season of the Australian Y-League, the premier national competition for youth football in the country. Teams Ten teams com ...

helping the Victory reach the Grand Final and being awarded with the Melbourne Victory FC Y-League Victory Medal & TAC Y-League Golden Boot.

Melbourne Victory

In October 2019, Lawrie-Lattanzio joined A-League Men side Melbourne Victory. He made his professional debut on 25 July 2020 against Western United and later made his

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

debut against Beijing Guoan on 27 November. He scored his first professional goal on 6 February 2021 against the Brisbane Roar. In May 2022, he departed the club, upon the expiry of his contract. In June 2022, he signed with Campbelltown City in the second-tier

York United

On 6 July 2022, he signed with Canadian Premier League club

York United York United Football Club (formerly known as York9 FC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto, Ontario. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League and plays its home games at York University's York Lions Stadium. History ...

. He made his debut on 15 July against Pacific FC, coming on as a substitute. He scored his first goal on 1 August against the

HFX Wanderers HFX Wanderers Football Club, commonly known as HFX Wanderers, and spoken as Halifax Wanderers, is a Canadian professional soccer club in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League at the top of the Canadian soccer le ...

. In December 2022, York announced that would not be exercising Lawrie-Lattanzio's contract option for 2023. In 2023, he returned to Campbelltown City in the second-tier

. On 10 March 2023, he scored two goals in a 3-0 victory over FK Beograd.

International career

Lawrie-Lattanzio began his international career with the Joeys in 2019, where he was announced in the squad for the

2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 18th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth association football, football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It was ...

. Lawrie-Lattanzio featured in the first match against Ecuador U17.

Honours

;Melbourne Victory * FFA Cup:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

References

External links

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NPL StatisticsNPL Statistics 2023
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrie-Lattanzio, Luis 2002 births Living people Soccer players from Adelaide Australian men's soccer players Indigenous Australian soccer players Australian people of Italian descent Men's association football midfielders Adelaide United FC players Melbourne Victory FC players National Premier Leagues players A-League Men players York United FC players Canadian Premier League players