Nicholas D'Agostino (born 25 February 1998) is an Australian professional

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 as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory e ...

Early life

D'Agostino was born on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

into a family of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and Maltese descent. He began playing junior football for the Musgrave Mustangs at the Under 7s level before switching to play for Runaway Bay in the local Gold Coast Football competitions. D'Agostino attended

The Southport School , motto_translation = Let him who deserves the palm of victory bear it. , established = , type = Independent early learning, primary and secondary day and boarding school , denomination = Anglican , headmaster = Andrew Hawkins , ...

throughout his upbringing.

Club career

Brisbane Roar

D'Agostino signed a two-year contract with

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland and has won the domestic title on three occasions, as well as holding the longest unbeaten record of 36 league matches without defeat. Brisba ...

on 5 August 2016.

Perth Glory

In June 2019, following new coach

Robbie Fowler Robert Bernard Fowler (born 9 April 1975) is an English football manager and former player, who most recently managed East Bengal in the Indian Super League. As a player, he was a striker, and is the eighth-highest goalscorer in the history ...

's changes in squads, D'Agostino left

and joined

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 19 ...

. On 7 August 2019, D’Agostino made his competitive debut for Perth Glory, in a

FFA Cup The Australia Cup, formerly known as the FFA Cup until the 2021 season, is the national football knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia, formerly known as Football Federation Australia ...

fixture against

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier ...

Melbourne Victory

D'Agostino joined

in August 2021. He signed a three-year contract, reuniting him with his former manager

Tony Popovic Tony Popovic (born 4 July 1973) is an Australian association football manager and former player. He is the current manager of A-League club Melbourne Victory. As a player Popovic's usual position was centre-back. Starting in 1989 at Sydney Un ...

International career

He's eligible to represent

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

due to his origins. In 2019, the Maltese FA were keen on verifying D'Agostino's eligibility to represent Malta at first team level, due to having Maltese grandparents. He was selected by

Graham Arnold Graham James Arnold (born 3 August 1963) is an Australian soccer manager and former player. Arnold was appointed to work as an assistant coach of the Australian national soccer team in 2000. After head coach Frank Farina was sacked in 2005, Ar ...

for the under-23 team in the

2020 AFC U-23 Championship The 2020 AFC U-23 Championship was the fourth edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. ...

qualifiers which took place in Cambodia. After being goalless in his first two matches, he scored a double in the final group match against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

to help Australia advance through to the

finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

which is going to be held in Thailand. In the main tournament, D'Agostino became the hero for Australia, having scored only three goals, but mostly important one which guaranteed his team a victory over

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

at the group stage, and especially, the only goal against

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

in the third-place encounter which clinched Australia a place for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. The Olyroos beat Argentina in their first group match but were unable to win another match. They were therefore not in medal contention. He was called up to the senior

squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers on 24 and 29 March 2022.

Career statistics

¹ – includes

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

final series statistics
² – includes

statistics
³ – includes

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

statistics;

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 ...

statistics are included in season commencing after group stages (i.e. ACL and A-League seasons etc.)

Honours

;Melbourne Victory *

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 ...

;Individual * PFA A-League Team of the Season: 2021–22

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:D'Agostino, Nicholas Living people 1998 births Sportspeople from the Gold Coast, Queensland Soccer players from Queensland Sportsmen from Queensland Association football forwards Australian soccer players Australia international soccer players Brisbane Roar FC players Perth Glory FC players Melbourne Victory FC players A-League Men players National Premier Leagues players Australian people of Italian descent Sportspeople of Italian descent Australian people of Maltese descent Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic soccer players of Australia