Soccer: Sydney can't Nix Durante

Andrew Durante spurned approaches from Sydney to stay with Wellington. Photo / Supplied

Loyalty has become an outdated concept in professional sport but Andrew Durante has been faithful to the Phoenix despite uncertainty swirling around the club and owner Terry Serepisos.

Durante was courted by Sydney FC during a three-month stint with them in the A-League off-season but rebuffed those approaches to return to Wellington. The Phoenix captain joined Sydney for their Asian Champions League campaign at short notice when they were lacking centre backs.

All things point to Durante being a perfect fit for Sydney. It's his home town, he got his first big break in football with Sydney Olympic more than a decade ago, his family still live there and his wife is expecting their first child in November. Family support is a big consideration for any new parents. Then there's the constant uncertainty about Wellington's future which is hard to ignore.

"I really enjoy my football a lot more here than I did at Sydney," Durante says. "The facilities and players were great at Sydney but I'm the captain here and it's something I feel honoured to do. In a football sense, I feel a lot more comfortable here. It's a club that really wants to achieve and it hasn't achieved what it can yet. I want to be a part of it when it really does take off and we push for the championship.

"When you hear rumours of the club falling over, it's pretty tough. As a footballer, you want to know your future is secure. Terry is in constant contact with us and reassuring us that he's here to stay and the club will be fine. As players, we have to take his word for it. We can't really worry about what is in the media and we try to block it out.

"It's probably brought us a little bit closer as a group. We sat down and said, 'whatever happens outside this group is out of our control. What we can control is playing and training well'."

It's a mentality that will solidify over the next five days. This afternoon at North Harbour Stadium, they play the New Zealand side about to head to the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia and on Wednesday take on Waitakere United.

It's a good chance for coach Ricki Herbert to assess a handful of triallists and whether they fit into the team both on and off the field. It's also an opportunity for the contracted players to get back on the road and into good habits.

The club have 14 players contracted and still need to sign three foreigners and three under-21 players before the season kicks off against Gold Coast United on October 9.

It's been a long off-season and Durante is thankful for his unexpected time with Sydney. He was about to indulge in Mad Monday with the rest of the Phoenix players when the Sydney offer came. He had an afternoon to decide before player registrations closed.

"I didn't have a lot of time to think but I knew I wanted to be a part of it because when I was at Newcastle when we won the league, I missed out on playing because I signed with Wellington," he says.

"It's a fantastic tournament and it's something I have always wanted to be a part of. To get a second chance was something I wanted to grab. I was fortunate enough that Sydney needed a centre back and they came knocking. The deal was done by 5pm or 6pm that night and I had to fly out the next day."

It was often, however, a frustrating exercise. He initially started on the bench, which he thought strange considering the club's desperation to sign him, and ended playing in the unnatural position of right back.

But both coach Vitezslav Lavicka and the club's chief executive tried to convince him to make the move to Sydney more permanent. Lavicka, in particular, was persuasive and had discussions with Durante on a number of occasions after training. Throughout, Durante stayed loyal to Wellington.

He still has one more year on his Phoenix contract with the option to stay for another year after that.

"I have no reason to want to take off at the moment," he says.