Sports star is having a ball
AFTER A BOOMING CAREER IN SOCCER, ZENON CARAVELLA HAS RETURNED TO THE FAR NORTH TO SPEND TIME WITH FAMILY AND GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY THROUGH A FOOTBALL ACADEMY, WRITES ALICIA NALLY
Sports star is having a ball If not for his slight build and stature, Cairns may have been laying claim to Zenon Caravella, (above) the rugby king. But as fate has mapped out, the energetic 35-year-old with piercing grey-green eyes is our most successful football export of another kind – the round ball. And it all started down the road at Endeavour Park, being trained by his father. In 2015, the smallest player in the A-league walked away from a 15-year professional career that included contracts with the New Zealand Knights, the Dutch Eertse Divisie and the Gold Coast and Adelaide United before a final three seasons at the Newcastle Jets.
IF NOT for his slight build and stature, Cairns may have been laying claim to Zenon Caravella, the rugby king.
But as fate has mapped out, the energetic 35-year-old with piercing grey-green eyes is our most successful football export of another kind – the round ball.
And it all started down the road at Endeavour Park, being trained by his father.
In 2015, the smallest player in the A-league walked away from a 15-year professional career that included contracts with the New Zealand Knights, the Dutch Eertse Divisie and the Gold Coast and Adelaide United before a final three seasons at the Newcastle Jets.
“My father loved rugby union but I was never big enough to play. I got involved in football through my uncle, who was one of the first professional players to go overseas, Frank Farina. He used to come back to Cairns and give me and my brother jerseys and footballs. As a kid we looked up to him and always thought: ‘I’d like to be like my uncle,’ ” Mr Caravella said.
“As long as I have remembered, I’ve always had a ball at my feet. I was playing in nap- pies. I probably retired prematurely from football, I guess, for a number of reasons. One of them was my father passing away.”
On returning to Cairns to manage the family business, Caravella Backpackers, the desire to give regional kids the same opportunities as kids in the cities spurred him on to set up Caravella Football Academy, which now provides high-quality coaching to 200 youngsters.
“I just wanted to stay involved in the game and I started that through Caravella Coaching, which I was doing every now and then on the side,” he said
“We’re all about making sure there is high-quality training sessions. We cap our numbers accordingly. I’m really enjoying it.”
Brother Angelo owns the Grafton St backpackers, which has recently changed names from Corona to come under the family name.
The pair are close, sharing a business now and having grown up playing football together in Sydney’s competitive junior club environment.
But the large personalities were too much for Angelo.
“I was just more of a mongrel than him. If someone gave me something, I’d give it right back. I was very competitive, I was a wild child,” Mr Caravella said.
By admission, he also took a
THE ENERGETIC 35YEAR-OLD WITH PIERCING GREY-GREEN EYES IS OUR MOST SUCCESSFUL FOOTBALL EXPORT OF ANOTHER KIND — THE ROUND BALL KIND.
IT’S A SLOG. THERE IS A LOT OF SACRIFICE INVOLVED IN PLAYING
PROFESSIONALLY. ZENON CARAVELLA
notoriously difficult path. “It’s a slog. There is a lot of sacrifice involved in playing professionally. There are a lot of distractions when you’re growing up as a teenager, there are a lot of things I had to make to sacrifice to make sure I was giving myself the opportunity to progress up through the levels.
“It was extremely difficult to make the adjustment to life outside of football too. Everyone has their own personal experience of transitioning from sport to the real world. I won’t lie, it was a struggle. Only now I feel like I’m getting that balance between my passion and all I ever knew to going into something that is a completely different environment, in an office.”
But Mr Caravella said he was well supported by the Professional Footballers Association and his family – including wife, two daughters and a baby on the way. He names his family as his biggest achievement in life.
“Finding time to spend with them is my favourite thing to do,” he said.
With a new project in the pipeline by way of a worldclass soccer training facility at Toogood Rd, Woree, Mr Caravella has come out as a vocal champion for sports tourism.
“We need to start getting people to Cairns for things other than the Great Barrier Reef or the Daintree Rainforest,” he said.
“We’ve got the Ironman, that’s fantastic. To bring people to Cairns to play sport and experience the region at the same time, is the right idea.
“The backpackers are a little bit slow at the moment, people are wondering if that is from the backpacker tax last year, if it is scaring them away.
“The academy is going to be a first of its kind in Far North Queensland and probably also Queensland. With that sportstourism link, we want to bring teams from overseas here.
“I think there are a lot of football fans here and there are a lot of junior players who play football. I think there are 5000 registered players, so it’s a big sport.”