SYDNEY FC star Alex Brosque has never forgotten the joy he felt playing as a schoolboy for Westfields Sports High.
“Local soccer was the best because it’s all fun before the pressure really starts,” he said.

Brosque got his first taste of soccer when he moved to Bossley Park at the age of five.

“I used to watch my dad play all the time and follow him around. I was even a mascot for one of his teams,” he said.

“There was no costume or anything, I just got to run onto the field with him.”

Brosque is one of many soccer stars to grow up in Fairfield and go on to represent Australia.

“A lot of players have come out of the area,and Westfields Sports, like Harry Kewell, and Michael Beauchamp, who’s now a Socceroo so it’s a very good area for soccer,” he said.

He got a start at Marconi Stallions as an 18-year-old in 2001, and credits the club for kickstarting his career.

“The coach at Marconi, Lee Sterrey, gave me my first big break so I owe a lot to him,” he said.

Westfields Sports also helped him - by preparing him for a professional sports career.

“The good thing about going to a sports high school was that you could get away with having to do an assignment by saying you had training,” he said, with a grin.

Today Brosque is no stranger to the Fairfield area, regularly making the trip back to visit his family home.

“I still go there every week for pizza on Friday nights when the family gets together,” he said.

As a kid, he played for Smithfield RSL and Fairfield Athletic in very competitive junior competitions.

“There are so many kids that want to make it and you realise how hard it is,” he said.

“So to get where I am now has been a dream come true.”

He currently plays as a striker for Sydney FC, where he was voted Player’s Player earlier this year.

But his ultimate career highlight was representing Australia in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

“It was a great experience to be over there and see the athletes in their daily life,” he said.