บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ EP 19: Daniel Cappellaro - From Perth to the Futsal Champions League and FIFA Street (Part 1)

football. My cousin was playing in he played Serie C one and two. he played for Biolese and then he was playing for a club at the time, Borgo Cesia, which was in Serie D. And we went and watched two of his matches. And then after the matches he gave us a football and a bag full of like shirts, kit, training kit, everything. So yeah, that was that was very cool. That was my first introduction to football. and he did did other things like come and have a kick with me while I was while we were there in a sh in Italy. it was obviously a novelty 'cause we're from Australia and the first time meeting and things like this. So we all we spent a lot of time around that family and around my cousin. So that was my first introduction to football. And then after that, yeah, I was I was hooked. So Jani Schmidt: And then back in the days, what was it like trying to play football on Perth? Because I imagine unlike Sydney and Melbourne, in Perth, football is even smaller. So did you already find a club? How did it work? What can I imagine at that time? Daniel: Yeah. it's an interesting question actually, because yeah, I think understanding that and at at the time when you're a kid you don't really realise it, but there's now I think there's now a two point four million people living in Perth. to give it like context, I think there's two million registered participants of football in Australia. Or might be a little bit more than that now. But there's 27 million people that live in Australia in in terms of population. I grew up in a city called Kelmscott, which is like it's a smaller suburb of of the greater city of Armadale, and my first football club was Armadale Soccer Club. I basically went looking on a notice board at primary school. So I was in year three, and this is when I I got back after the trip to Italy, and I went looking on a notice board, and there were two clubs, one was Kelmskot. Ruse and one was Armadale Soccer Club. I only chose Armadale because they trained twice a week instead of once and they had a game on Sunday. So I was like, okay, cool, that's what I want to do. I want to be playing as much as possible. and yeah, absolutely fell in love with with that club. Still have very good friends from my first team, still stay in touch with my first coach. They live in my my first coach still lives in Perth and my his son, which is my best mate now lives in Scotland. But we still stay in touch and I try and see him as much as possible. Like, but it really yeah, that club, like it y I would say it shaped my life. Jani Schmidt: Love it. And then I imagine the next years you just kept playing was there a time where someone noticed or your family noticed like, he's actually quite talented. He's good with skills. were you like, how did the next journey, what did the next years look like? Daniel: yeah, I I think the thing that I did differently was I become obsessed. I'm a very addictive personality. when I when I find something I like, when I find something I love. I think that shows probably through my social media and other I'm not gonna say like like videos, other content you can can see of mine, is that like I love doing it. You know, I'm forty years old, I still go with the ball. And I think that Is kind of what separated me when I was eight years old, nine years old, even ten, eleven, because after a couple of seasons, it was forgotten about that I'd only started maybe a couple of years ago and the the other boys had started when they were five or six. That's how I remember it anyway. Like I I could be wrong. but I think moving yeah, moving forward from that, I was like maybe Was under tens, under elevens, under tens I wasn't in the top team. under eleven's I I was in the top team by that point, under twelves. And then between twelve and thirteen was an interesting age for myself because West Ham started a academy. I say that in verte commas very loosely, in in Western Australia. There was a north and a south. I was invited to be a part or selected to be a part of the of the South Academy with it was called Hammers Academy. and at that same time I had been accepted to take on a scot scholarship at John Curtin Soccer Excellence school. So it's like a football school where I was doing we did you'd say eight sessions a week, but it was five because they were just single sessions at the time. They weren't divided into periods. but that was when it was really I suppose it became serious for me. It was around like nineteen ninety eight, nineteen ninety nine. I know that seems like a long time ago. Jani Schmidt: Thanks. Daniel: it was. It was a long time ago. So but that's yeah, that's around twelve thirteen was when it started to get serious for me and when I started to receive that kind of praise, I suppose, you know, and I started to realize, yeah, maybe I'm maybe I'm good at this. But I don't know. I always I never really thought about how good I was. I wanted to be better constantly. and I think that's due to my also like my my upbringing, my my father. he was, yeah, we can say critical. but I think it helped me in in terms of my career and looking for opportunities and and not stopping at, you know, that's good enough, you know. So I was always yeah, I was always even though I got accepted into something, it was always like, Okay, what's next? And what can I do next? And who do I have to play against next? And y that that kind of mentality. Jani Schmidt: And then I'm curious back then, like what was it like around Perv? Was there like a state team or selection teams or like where would like the best players in the area go to progress? Daniel: Yep. there was we we had a there was like a Western Australian championship, but it was really just the metropolitan area at that time for under I suppose under twelves up to maybe sixteens. And then you would go into like what they call now MPL, which was just the state Premier League, which was eighteen reserves and first team. They never

really had like like now we have eighteens 21s, 23s, first team. There was no age on this kind of stuff. That kind of came later. but most players wanted to play division one. there was division one south and division one north, so you didn't have to travel too far. And then the top four two of those would go into a top four and we'd have playoff. and that was like that, yeah, as I was like 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, all the way up, really. there there was a l from from memory there was a lot of clubs, but yeah, it's it's different because I feel like my memory and from traveling, I was talking with a friend about this the other day, like we play footsal together and I said I still remember being like twelve, thirteen years old and thinking I just have to be better than this person. But the metropolitan area is so much smaller and the the talent pool is so much smaller that when you when you travel, it's like now living in Melbourne, I think about Perth and I'm like, yeah, it's it's a smaller city. Still very good players there. but your yeah, your awareness or what you're exposed to is what and especially at that time when I was growing up, is was far, far less than probably what was happening around the world, you know? Jani Schmidt: Yes. Daniel: that's probably that's probably the best way to explain it. Did they have state teams? They did. We had my my age group was interesting because it changed a lot. So growing up, there was always the National Soccer League, the NSL, and then it changed to the A-League in 2008, but there was a period of like 18 months where there was almost no national leagues. and then before that, they would always When I say they, like the FA was trying to find ways, I think, to grow engagement, to grow number of participants, to build competition, to find a way to bring all the best ones together. and it went from the junior soccer association to junior Champions League to Soccer West Coast to what was Football West. And within that, state teams would come and go. Like I think there was a state team when I was thirteen. Then there was no state team. Then there was districts when we were or a district team, so you'd have north, west, south, east. They did that when we were 11, but then there was no district. Then when I turned around 14 or 15 came a program, Future Glory. and that was the first like a real pay-to-play program. that was it was run by Frank Arok, funnily enough. and Football West. was still the junior soccer association. They were still running like your holiday camps, school holiday camps. so there was that representation, but it was very disjointed. there was no like now Jani Schmidt: then what comes to my head with that is you as a player then if you think back and you're like a kid that wants to play football ideally at the highest level possible. Like did you know where to go? Did you know what the actual goal could be? Did you ever think like or did someone say to you maybe you have to leave Perth to be able to progress your career or like how was that? Daniel: Yeah, absolutely. So I was just about to say, like looking at it now, that there was no clear path. Like in in my mind as a kid, there was always a pathway. Cause I'd look at like Stan Lazaridis, Harry Kewell Brett Emerton, Robbie Slater, Craig Johnston, Ned Zelich, like all these all these guys had been in their town. Stan Lazaridis from Western Australia had been in their city in Australia and managed to find a way to play in Europe. so i i in my mind it was like I just had to play at the highest level possible, with the yeah, with the best opponent possible and trying to beat them individually, trying to yeah, show what I can do constantly. never never settling with that. that's yeah, again, that's probably a mentality from my home environment. but my intention was always like I wanna play in Europe. and it was never like I have to play in the Premier League or I have to play in Italy or I've got to be in Spain. it was just Europe. Like if it was Belgium or Portugal or the Netherlands or Germany or I used to watch a program called The World Game, had Les Murray and Johnny Warren on it, and they're like legends of Australian football in terms of punditry and how they how they drove the game and especially Johnny Warren play for the Socceros. This this program would run for like six hours on a Sunday evening. And watching yeah, watching that, I would record it on a VHS and then I would play it back to myself. And there was like Belgian highlights, there was Portuguese highlights. You used to watch like Mario Jardel playing for Porto. Sometimes they show Bundesliga, Giovanni Elber Stefan Effenberg, Matthias Sammer Jani Schmidt: Amazing names, Daniel: Yeah, yeah, like the all all these players, man. All these players. Lothar Matthäus yeah, I watched yeah, I watched so much football on VHS. but I was very like and and once I found one leg, I wanted to found find another one. So wherever it was I could play, I would I would accept and I would I would yeah, just push myself towards like I wanna play in Europe. That that was it. yeah, which was interesting because as I got older, my pathway came in futsal. But I tell people now, like if it came in beach football, I'd have done that as well. Like it didn't it didn't bother me, which I think as as we move through this podcast and we and we start to talk, I think it's something different in this generation now. F for me, I just wanted to be a footballer that could have been street, futsal, seven aside, beach, outdoor, eleven aside. Like I always had professional footballer, eleven aside as the main goal. but yeah, wherever my path took me, I just wanted to I wanted to be able to make a living from the game and be paid to play. That was it really. And then it experienced the world, you know. I wanted to live in different countries. Jani Schmidt: Yeah. Before we jump into that, maybe a quick question on that. Like you obviously live in Melbourne

now, you're involved in the Melbourne system, but I'm sure you're still connected to Perth. Is there a clearer pathway for players in Perth now? And what would you recommend to someone that's maybe living in Perth, growing up in Perth playing football? How can they reach the next level and the highest level possible? Daniel: Think absolutely. there's definitely a much clearer pathway now. There's more like I don't think football is with great investment, but it's still invested in better than it was back in the late or or mid nineties. So there's definitely a pathway there. there's now I don't know how many soccer schools there are now, but the last time I think there's at least four, maybe five soccer schools when I was going to high school, there was only one. Or maybe two. We had so sorry, two, South Coast Baptists as well. but I think in terms of if I'm if I'm in Perth, I want to play for one of the top NPL clubs. And if not there, then I need to be at the Football West Academy or I need to be in Perth Glory. Because it's the same here in Melbourne. There's Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory. Prior to this we had the F V Academy and we had Western United. now we only have two A League Academies that are yeah, I I work at Melbourne City, so I can say that's a real pathway for players. There is players that I worked with last year that are 2010, that are currently signed to the first team, that are training with the first team, that are getting opportunities against A-League opponents. So in terms of that pathway, it's like you need to try and get into one of them. If it's not one of them, then it's one of the better MPL sides that you'd need to. you you know find your way in and then if it's not that then yeah I think you need to look overseas like unfortunately and I was having this conversation again with another coach the other day he's actually well he was from England and I said the hardest thing here in Australia Melbourne Perth I don't I don't think it's too much different other than there's two clubs is that anywhere in Europe like Germany has Bundesliga one, two and three, England has Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two. And then underneath that, you can still make money. yeah, you know, we can go on and on. I'm sure you underst you know about all the professional leagues. Where it's like here in Australia, if you're not playing at Melbourne City or Melbourne Victory, then you're at South Melbourne. and yeah, I'm sure you've had people on the podcast that have had this discussion and how difficult it is to try and you know, find an environment that is As close to professionalism that is going to have games played on TV, that then an agent can take that footage or or take this experience that you have and and be able to give it to other clubs and find a pathway and find those opportunities. The thing is it's it's it's being done and it has been done. is it more difficult in Australia? Yes. Is it easier than when I was a

kid? Yes. Jani Schmidt: Yeah, I think that's a fair summary. So before we Daniel: Yeah, that's that's what I would say. Jani Schmidt: go into these discussions to give everyone who's listening still a bit more of your background and who you are, take us maybe now into that path of like, okay, for you, the path was futsal. How did that come about? What do you do with it? And what maybe give us the two or three best parts of what futsal did to you before we go into the part of why futsal is important for skill acquisition. Daniel: Alright, cool. so I'm probably gonna need you to remember this question because there's a lot of parts to it, but but let's break Jani Schmidt: Hahaha! Daniel: it down. so first of all, how I found futsal. Jani Schmidt: Start with yourself and put so, yeah. Daniel: Yes, yes. So how I found Futsal So my first exposure to futsal, I was ele 11 years old. And this was just coming up to the 98 World Cup. And one of the coaches from Armadale Soccer Club. This is like I believe in everything for a reason. Everything for a reason. Cause it's it's crazy that I chose Armadale Soccer Club just because they had two trainings instead of one. and then which led me to be at a summer, 'cause we used to play rebound football with the it's like a big yellow tennis ball and you play off the walls. Have you played this type of football? Jani Schmidt: Yes. Daniel: Yeah. So so I I used to love that as well. I loved that that type of indoor soccer. Like you had to have a good first touch, otherwise the ball's just bouncing everywhere. Jani Schmidt: Yeah. Daniel: so we used to play this and then one yeah, it was like the second summer we'd gone to play indoor soccer and one of the coaches, there was yeah, still a a good friend of my my my friend's dad, who's yeah, our first coach, he brought this like rock of a ball. to this to indoor soccer and he said this is he goes I just got this off a guy in Leeds and he goes this is what all the Brazilian kids are playing with and and I was captivated and then obviously they knew how much investment I had as a child and how obsessed I was with football so they gave me a VHS and on the VHS was a game of Brazil versus Argentina in nineteen ninety seven prior to the World Cup it was BBC Planet Football at the time. And I actually on YouTube you can still find the segment that's at halftime. And then this segment had Simon Clifford, Brazilian Soccer Schools, talking about the low bounce, talking about the futsal ball, and it was just showing kids doing all these different moves. And then it showed you like Denilson Ronaldo, Romario, Socrates, Zico, Jazinho. It went through all the players, Rivelino And it had all little highlights of them and then the kids doing it. And doing basically it was like what we call now a skill zone or a ball mastery skill box. and then just playing games 4v4, you know, into like was like a gym in England with the goals that are like more horizontal than they are high. it was a clip like this, and then and it finishes with like, yeah, who's gonna win the World Cup? And all the kids go, Brazil, you know, they're all dressed in like yellow and blue with white socks, and and I was just hooked. I was hooked on that. So I would watch that again and again and again. Then yeah, my idols started to become more or my my references started to become more like Denilson Rivaldo, Romario, Sonny Anderson, Giovanni Elber so many. Like I can't yeah, I'm gonna miss Brazilians out, but like I could just keep naming them, right? Jani Schmidt: You know what, on this one, for any young players listening to this, go into YouTube and look up all of these players because it's so easy to forget them when there's so many new players and young, exciting players playing the game now, right? But if you watch what these guys did with the ball, it is unbelievable. Daniel: Yeah. Jani Schmidt: And I think you should not forget that this was part of football as well, or is part of football, but it's just different. Daniel: Yeah, I think it's I think it's it's just on that, and we'll get back to footsall, it's hard for the kids now because there's so much that's on Instagram, on reels, and it's so ready. You actually don't need to do research. So I used to get every football book from the library. I would go searching everywhere for any kind of books, DVDs, VHS, anything I could find. like my cousin ended up giving me a VHS that's all in Italian. I don't speak Italian by the way and I still don't understand too much. But it's Logos TV and it's just an hour of Michel Platini and all his greatest goals. So play players like yeah, Platini, Jean-Pierre Papin, Jean Tigana, I'm trying to think, yeah, go through that frame theme. Like those players as well, I was watching a lot of, as well as Brazil, as well as Italy, as well as let's say Bulgaria, you know, because Christa Stoichchkov. So I was massive on Stoichkov as well. And then yeah, I I'd I'd go through moments where I just loved a certain nation and I'd go looking for all these players. But I think it's it's so much easier for kids now that they just dismiss this. but I was very much into very much into finding like who was the first person to do this as a kick. You know, it wasn't Pele it was Leonidasta Silva. Just crazy things like that. Like it is things you're never gonna know need to know. So Jani Schmidt: Yeah. Daniel: yeah. But that's that's and it's like I think my my obsession with the game was like fueled by all this kind of stuff. So once I found futsal and the Brazilian football and what makes these players, and at that time, your Ballon d'Or winners around that time, especially like mid nineties, early two thousands. I think R9 won it twice, Romario won it, Rivaldo won it. Like they were all it was always Brazilian players there. So unlike the Brazil of now, which you know all the kids at the academy tell me they're washed. as much as I don't like to believe that, but you know, they've

they've got a point because Brazil's not the s kind of Brazil we we used to or I grew up with. but yeah, so I found futsal, did this, and then it also became like yeah, I suppose like an obsession with the skills as well. Because I was I was never the biggest player. I wasn't good at heading the ball. Defensively, I was poor defensively, but I could also say I was never really helped. Like if someone told me just to run behind the ball, I'd have done that. If I could get behind the ball, I could get a toe in the way. I didn't like tackling, you know, I didn't enjoy this kind of stuff. understanding you need to win your jewels. But it was also because I was in my opinion, I was a late developer. You know, I think well, people who knew me when I was a kid would say the same. so I became obsessed with like, okay, I just need to be so good technically. I need to be better than the person not next to me, but in the next team technically. So that any game that comes along or any session or that, I'm gonna stand out. Jani Schmidt: then how did you do it? Daniel: How do I do it? yeah, VHS videos. That's it. VHS videos, DVDs. Jani Schmidt: Like watch it and then go outside with the ball and just try it yourself. Daniel: Yeah, that was it. That was it. because that's kind of what led me to the street football as well. and also the freestyle. because my my freestyle juggling is not like a freestyler. Like it's I can do the basic ones, but if you watch a good freestyler, like it's something different. These guys are insane. way, way ahead, you know, way evolved. My freestyle is like the original kind of stuff you saw in two thousand two, thousand three. You're doing like an around the world, balance on your head, catch on the back of your neck. but at that time as well, 2003, four, maybe two thousand four, two thousand five, I went looking for I found street football and I found Panor Knockout. So that was like Edward Van Gils, Ishmael Hamdawi, Jermaine Vandenberg, all these street footballers, all these guys from Suriname. That had ridiculous feet and were playing futsal. And there was highlights tapes of them. And I thought, if they can do it, why not, why not me? Like I'm just gonna go and practice and I'm gonna learn. And I started doing that kind of stuff when I was like 17, 18 years old. but that was also in line with rot seeing Ronaldinho, seeing Cristiano Ronaldo, young Ronaldo, like 2004 to 2008, Ronaldo was That's my favorite Ronaldo. I always talk about that Ronaldo. other pla I'm trying to think of other players around that time that were doing similar things. Joe Cole at West Ham. Like he was just so so creative, so good on the ball. yeah, that kind of what that's what fueled my my development, I suppose. And then finding anytime someone tell did you see this? And I'd go looking for it and I'd record it and then I'd watch it back and I'd see how I could learn it. And I was lucky that I learned from seeing. So I could watch and I could go and replicate. You know, it took me longer than it maybe takes some kids now. but I was still able to get to a point where I could do it. And then, yeah, this again is moving on further. As I got older, I wanted to start using it in games. and I just I just go and try. Like I do it at training, I do it in games, I and I don't know where that. personality came from because maybe it's it's like was my way of feeling like I can win or I can show my ability. because I think if you're competitive, you're gonna do whatever is necessary to be most efficient. And and it wasn't always the case when I was younger. But it led me to where I am, right? So it's obviously there was Jani Schmidt: Yeah, so maybe now give us bit of an insight of like where Futsal took you and how that part became like a big chunk of your playing career, right? Daniel: Yeah. So that was yeah, so that was my first exposure, like being at eleven, and then we yeah, progressed through with a bit of street football and things like this. The next time I found futsal, I would have been eighteen years old and I was playing at my local recreation center. And I was also playing football at the same time. So I was playing what was MPL now, WA State Premier League. I would be in in between reserves and first team. I was, yeah, eighteen I did this from eighteen till about twenty four years old. Over six years, I did the exact same. different clubs, but always in between and playing footsal side by side. but I was playing at my local recreation center and then I was approached by representatives now of what is Dabwe State Futsal Center or or there's a club there now called Cambio Cumbre, which I helped start with my good friend who's still working there, Colombian guy, Nestor Fonseca. That's where now everyone plays top-level futsal in Western Australia. I found or that community found me, or I found that community again by chance, or whether you're in the right place at the right time. and I ended up in the West Australian state team. So then I fell into playing in a more, let's say, competitive futsal league, but I was still playing football side by side. So at one point, I would be doing futsal Monday night, football Tuesday. Futsal Wednesday night, Thursday football, Friday footsal, Saturday, Futsal and Sunday football. And I would just go around and round and round like this. And that's why I said I did it for like six years. maybe like yeah, you can have hindsight, you can say if I poured into football more, maybe things would be different. but it it's it's the way it worked out, it's the way it was, and and I wouldn't change it. but that's yeah, that was what I did for a long time. And then as I was doing this, I met different people. We played in s different tournaments. I played in a a tournament in Cairns in North Queensland. met or played against a team from Argentina. and that was like my first real not not my first trip overseas, but my first real footsal trip, I would say. and I went

to Argentina. I was there for four months. Played in tournaments, played some friendlies and stuff with with this team, Deportivo Caceros, that I met in Cairns. And then when I came back from that, I thought, well, maybe this is something I could do properly. I was already at that stage 25. That March, following from that experience, FIFA Street came out. and I had one of Jani Schmidt: man, what a game, what a game. Daniel: Yeah, unbeliev unbelievable game. It's still still talked about now. People still love it. St people still reminisce about FIFA Street. yeah, I think it's yeah, it it's it definitely had an impact on a generation, FIFA Street. so but yeah, that came out and I had one of Jani Schmidt: So it came out and then, and then how did that affect you? Daniel: Well, I was one of the sixteen unlockable characters that were in FIFA Street, which happened to Yeah, that not that it boosts you my profile, but it also gives you like a little bit of immortality and it pushes you along. And I think it really gave me my small sided game stigma. I don't know if you want a FIFA Street footballer playing in your eleven aside team. I'm pretty sure back in two thousand and th what was that 11 and 12 when it happened, there wouldn't have been any coach in the NPL in Western Australia that would have thought they would have. so, but yeah, I I think that after that, then the stigma really stuck. I was working at Perth Glory at the time. I was just doing I ran a program called Glory Skills. So I was coaching, doing footsall, I put football to the side. And then I got the opportunity to go and play in Spain. Went to Spain, which then led on to playing in England, which then led to playing for a Scottish team in the Champions League or the UEFA Futsal Cup at the time. to then back to England and then from England to here in Melbourne. I had other choices to go elsewhere. But yeah, I decided to come here to Melbourne. It was a bit closer to home. and the salary was good. considering I was going to be playing in the league here and doing a little bit of coaching on the side. So that's kind of what led me to Melbourne. and what where futsal had has taken me. And then went since being here in Melbourne, I got to play against Falcao and and with Douglas Costa. I got to play for the mini football Australian team. actually coming back from Argentina, I played for the AFA Australian futsal team. in San Francisco. and the fast forward again, the mini football world cup was in Tunisia. So went to North Africa. ha yeah, had a lot of lot of cool experiences. and then twenty end of twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, I decided I'm gonna go and do one to one coaching and and small groups again, start working with players again so I can free up my time because I wanted to ultimately go back overseas. and I was training toward the end of 2019. we traveled to Brazil, went to Brazil with Rebel Neymar Junior Five, met Neymar, played in the tournament there, which was really, really cool. and then we I went on a tour, a coaching tour to Spain, but one of the coaches knew the futsal coach and the footsal team there. They played in the second division and I trained with them for like a week. and everything was all aligned. I wanted to go live in Europe. I wanted to live in Spain again and I was going to do a bit of coaching and play there. and then obviously COVID hit. but yeah, Jani Schmidt: okay. Daniel: futsal has allowed me to yeah, and at that time I was thirty twenty nineteen I was thirty three. So at that time after COVID, I was yeah, I was thirty six and I thought I need to make some choices here. So then I went back into coaching and then I arrived in Melbourne City, thirty eight years old. So yeah, I've been at been at Melbourne City now two seasons. But it's yeah, it's the journey is like Jani Schmidt: Yeah, on this journey, you summarized just like many, years in like five sentences and like experiences that people will probably say, if I would experience one of them, I would say like, this is pretty good. And then like, I feel like you have a lot of them. So what you say, because obviously when I looked at you and like your profile and with the podcast, what I'm doing is like, one part is obviously, interviewing professional players on the journey how they got there, but also people are that were on the journey Didn't make it to professional football playing 11 v 11, but are making a full-time salary or working full-time in football That's why we are chatting here But would you say that you had that comparison of like becoming a professional footballer in futsal and allowing like futsal allowing you to play the game Travel the world and having all of these experiences Daniel: Yeah, I I think I did. Like, I was a professional futsal player. I was able to travel the world. I w a a dream of mine was to play in the Champions League. I I got to do that as well. The street football offered me the chance to be in video games. Everyone wants to be in a video game when they're growing up. you know, there was FIFA Street and then there was Street Power Football that come out in twenty twenty and I I have a character in this one as well. Was there moments in my career when I was living away from home and I got homesick? Yep. Was there moments where I was injured, didn't know what to do, didn't know who to go and see? absolutely. Was there times where financially it was very difficult? Absolutely. So all the all the stories that I've heard from ex-professional footballers, I have Yeah, I I believe I've had a lot of there's a lot of similarity in in my in my journey. it looks different. It is different. I leant into my or we talk about players leaning into their superpower. I think mine's my technical skills and one v one ability or or ability to keep the ball. and I think that's why it took me down the down the futsal path. I think if it if I'd if I play football it would look very different. Very, very different. If I

never met certain people along the way, if I didn't take risks, yeah, it would it would look very different. Very different. So I think futsal definitely enabled me to to do that. Jani Schmidt: So if you think about this part of now, you're saying like, I took different risks. Is there one moment throughout all these years that you vividly remember where like, okay, this can go either way. This is a big gamble, but if it works out, it's going to be amazing. Is there one moment? Daniel: Well, I think it's hard to say there's one. Jani Schmidt: Maybe the biggest one. Daniel: Yeah, yeah. yeah, probably like staying in staying in Europe, organizing the visas inside this that side of it. Like I don't have a European passport. So there was a lot of gamble that come with that. there was a lot of risk that come with that. Yeah, I I when I left Perth, I was on full time wage with Perth Glory working in the community. I don't know if you've been to Perth. Have have you ever been? Jani Schmidt: I haven't been yet, I wanna go, but I haven't been. Daniel: So Perth, Perth is like one of the most beautiful, safest cities, the warmest cities in the in the world. in my in my opinion, from what I've seen when I've travelled, they have there there's twelve months in a year. I reckon nine of those are in the sun. you know, it's it in late May you can still have thirty degree days, and in late August you can still have thirty degree days. So it was a very and by that time as well, I'd already played for the AFA Australian team, I'd already played for Argentina. sorry, played in Argentina. I'd traveled, I FIFA Street had come out, and I had this job working in the community where like, yeah, I loved it. I loved the job. and I left everything and went to Spain. So yeah, there's there's moments like that. Like it sounds dramatic, it's not it I don't know, like it it's weird when I when I think of it like this 'cause I don't think of it as that dramatic. Looking back at it, I'm like, okay, what was I doing? You know, being forty, I look at it and go, What was I doing? But look at but in that moment, it it didn't it made sense to me. And it wasn't yeah, it was never a risk, which is strange, I suppose. Jani Schmidt: Like, I think that's a big topic that I find a lot, meeting like a lot of young players in Australia, or players that then are becoming older, they're turning 17, 18, 19, they're talking about going overseas for football, and obviously it's a big risk. And I think, like growing up in Australia, it is actually a big, big challenge for players over here, because you have it so good, right? You mentioned the biggest part is weather. And regardless of where you live in Australia, you have a lot of the sun, then it's a very safe country. You have a lot of opportunities. Many, many places you have the ocean. So naturally you're used to so much good in your everyday life that when you go over to wherever you go and especially Europe, it is a big challenge. And when we speak to players that want to go to Germany, you say like, you have to be mentally prepared. That is going to be cold that for several weeks, you're not going to see the sun because it's just gray and it's rainy and it's It's not fun when it comes to that part. if you like coming from going up in Germany, you used to it, you don't care. Like it's just part of it. But knowing how good it can be from Australia, it is a big challenge for players. like big respect to you as well to like being in a, you know, comfortable place, being in a comfortable environment with work and what you're doing to then say like, all right, I'm going to pack everything up and I'm going to go. Daniel: Yeah, it's it's it well thank you. But it is like I said, it is strange because I never really saw the risk. Like I think and it's one thing that like w when we speak later, because I've seen some of the the things you wanted to talk about in terms of young players and that. the need to be it's not like delusional, but it's like just delusional in your own ability, like and and have so much Faith in yourself. Like, yeah, I've I've had a lot of people tell me a lot of things. But I never really like it hurt and it hurts at the time. but I never really took it on board. It's only it's only been later in my life where I've thought about that and I've gone, There's people actually like these people saying stuff like this. Like it's just yeah, but it but I was just yeah, I was just delusional, I suppose. to the point of where I thought I could really do something, I could experience something. I had this vision for myself in my head that I wanted to experience. and I wasn't gonna let it yeah, I wasn't letting it let it get in in my way. Like w I one of my good friends, we recently had a a friend he was playing futsal as well. And and my friend said to him, he said, The difference between yourself and Daniel is Daniel will live in a cardboard box in our living room. to do what he wants to do. and I I laughed at the time, but I actually thought it's probably true. It's probably true. Like I I didn't I don't have a a need for like I like nice things, of course. But I didn't have the need to want to have a house, you know, have a family. Like I'm I'm forty and w I have a six month old daughter now. So I'm starting now, which is like I think it's late. But I I st I still rent, you know, I don't have a flash car. I bought a car for my wife so she can make sure the baby's okay when she drives around, right? But my car that I drive around coaching and that, it's it's not flash at all. all that mattered to me was where I could play. If it was 1v1, 3v3, 5v5, it didn't matter to me. how high I could go, what level I could get to. and then getting to a point where, regardless of Yeah, this this is the this is another thing. Maybe it's psychological thing. regardless of what people say, it's like if you call me or or know I'm gonna be someplace, you understand that it's gonna be a level

of technical skills. Which I think is crazy, right? Because it's so subjective as well. people can still say whatever they want. But that was always in my mind, all these things. Jani Schmidt: Yeah, love it. I have a suggestion to you. I think we're going to cut this episode in two different parts and we're going to finish the first part now with my last question. And then we're going to progress into a second part, which like for everyone listening is going to be probably a week later. And then we're going to go more into the skill and coaching side of things. So to give everyone just the last wrap up around like who you are and what you've done. Maybe the thing that's most interesting to me, maybe a reflection for you around like your Futsal career. You also did a lot of at some stage, I don't know when I couldn't find that on my research, but you obviously started the social media side as well, which I believe enabled you to do a lot of different stuff as well. So maybe give us a quick intro around that because I think social media becomes even more important these days. A lot of players, a lot of people think that they can make a career in social media. but I think many of them also don't understand how much hard work it is and that all the flashy side that you see at some stage is like many, many years of hard work on consistency. So maybe give us that perspective of your career and how all of these parts of like small-sided games, futsal, being very technical, and then like the social media side come together for you as a person and how that helped you in the long term. Daniel: I this is gonna sound strange, but I don't really enjoy or like social media. I don't think it's yeah, it's it's an interesting place. I never intended to be an influencer. I did not I did not want to gain likes or following. When it started happening, I I enjoy it of course, because it brought more of everything else. But my intention solely and I started like I started on MySpace. I started on YouTube. So this is like two thousand and five, two thousand six. And it was literally just uploading skills in my front yard or on the street, on the road, then showing that skill in games. And then it became footsal compilations. And then it became yeah, w any anytime but play a match, getting someone to record and then Just clipping highlights of that and putting it up on YouTube. And my sole purpose for this was I live in Perth. I understood a little bit of what was outside of Perth. I knew there was different communities because forums started to form on on the internet. And I was like, if someone sees what I what I do, so it was like putting it out there because you also get to a point where Okay, maybe I'm good here, but am I am I really good? Like am I I think, yeah, still don't know if I'm really good, but you you get to a point where you need to understand there's there's a an a higher level. And if I put it out there, how far can we actually go? And that's what YouTube became for me. So I put it up and then I put it on a forum and then people would comment, talk, whatever. It was very, very different from what it is now. and then that carried me basically That kind of social media, putting up skills and that. Actually, I'll tell you what prompted me to do it first was a Nike the chance. Do you remember this competition? Jani Schmidt: No, not really. Give us an inside. Daniel: So Nike the chance. So so do you know you know Thomas Rogic, who played for Socceroos Jani Schmidt: Yeah. Daniel: played for Celtic. Thomas Rogic played for the Futsalroos He was playing, I think, NPL2 in Sydney. He was younger than myself. I submitted my video, but I found out later that I was too old. So I was 18, 18, 19. And he got all the way through in this Nike the chance. And there was another guy we used to watch as well from Norway, Brian Marser, which he used to put all these Norway? No, Sweden. He was from Sweden. And he used to put all these videos up. And he ended up getting sponsored by Nike and he'd get boots and stuff like that. And was training and he'd play for his club. And then they started this thing called the chance. And all these players went to London, like a hundred players, and then eight were selected. For professional contracts. So I saw all that. But I started a page to try and have that opportunity. And then it kind of like grew and grew and grew the Facebook. And I like, I'll just keep doing it. I'll keep going with it. And then YouTube started to not grow, but I grew it had a few subscribers. Like it was very, very average, you know, very like low level social media stuff in two thousand six, two thousand and seven. And But that's yeah, that's what prompted it, that those Nike competitions first. And then I took what wa whatever was happening and I just kinda right ran with it and I just kept putting my highlights up and I was like, no, if someone sees it, great, you know, I'm gonna get an opportunity. and opportunities came to me first from playing in tournaments, like I said, the one in North Queensland. But then the one in Spain was also possible through social media. And then Me playing in England was because someone saw what was on social media and said, Hey, you're the Australian guy playing in Spain. I Yeah, it's right. He said, let's get a coffee. Turns out he was the president of Middlesbrough Footsal Club, which then I went to England, did a training with the team. we did a bit of a tour. I ended up training with Baku as well, which was like a team full of pros. still know some of the guys there, still follow some of their socials. Like it There's a lot of things that social media, it just put my playing ability in other people's eyes. And that's all it was for. And then when I'd finished in England and I come here to Victoria, when I started playing here in Victoria, the owner of the Futsal Centers was very big on social media and awareness and exposure and building and building the game.

So I was kind of You could say I was an ambassador, it's what I was employed for. and I just went along and started putting photos and started putting videos, and then Instagram changed and started doing videos as well as photo. So then I started doing the videos as well. And then one day, it was like early twenty sixteen, I put up a tutorial and it went to eighty thousand views. And then I showed the skills in a game. and that we yeah, once that went and it was like Wednesday night, 745, I posted. I remember everything because I was like, right, next Wednesday I'm gonna do the same, different skills, but I'll show you a little bit of it happening in the game. And I went crazy again. Like 90,000 views, and then it just started to grow and grow and grow. And then it got to the point I was putting up like a little bit of my training sessions, but mostly just what happened in the game. So I was just putting game highlights, game highlights, game highlights, and it just like it flew. it got to I think a hundred and fifty K, 160K by the end of 2017. and that's what I think, yeah, led me to working with brands like Nike, Rebel Sport, Puma, Adidas, Be In Sports, Optus Sport, like yeah, it was it was really cool. And everywhere I went, I even did some stuff with the A League, like their promo and that, but everywhere I went, it was like, okay, we need you to do these things, but it was it was around ability. It was around playing. It was never like it is now, where it's like, okay, create three bits of content. One's funny, one's gonna shock people, and then one's like a crossbar challenge. You know, it's never like this. it was it was very different. so yeah, it just grew like that. And it grew by chance. It it grew because I was putting up something that I I love doing. So When when people say it's hard, it's a lot of work, it wasn't really. And I think like in the last three years since I started coaching, I post a little bit, but my accounts actually died off. Like there was a time where we'd just come out of COVID and not many people were playing, and we started our own footsal league. And there was like fifteen players, three teams of sorry, fifteen, twelve, three teams of four, and the keepers would stay in. They never moved. And we would both play. And we we call it win streak because if you were winning, you'd stay on. You keep the streak Jani Schmidt: Yes. Daniel: going. And then at the end of the night, you're the team with the most wins goes into a final. You play a semifinal and then the winner would have a four minute rest and they come out and play a final. All the clips we created from this was like between twenty twenty one to twenty two. So it was like a Covid time, there was like lockdowns, then we were back playing, then we weren't, but so even the leagues around the world and also in Melbourne, sometimes they were stopped for a long time. and so people would come and play. some of those clips went to like six million views, seven million views, like crazy stuff, 53,000 likes, stuff like this. which again, it's it's not hard. Someone's filming you, you're playing, right? It's not this isn't work. When when you're creating, and I I actually have a lot of respect for the guys here in Melbourne and Sydney that. They actually go and create content. They they think of a storyline. They have different kits. They've got different boots. They build a around a player. And it's like, you know, who's this player? Like that stuff is hard. That is difficult. That is like you've got to be creative, you've got to be imaginative, you've got to have the right camera, you've got to everything, everything. You need people there filming with you. so I never really did that. And I never really consider myself an influencer as such. I'm not a creator. I just get yeah, footage of my playing or my training or skills or it could be coaching and one-to-one or it's always around technical ability, always around skill or one v one or small-sided game. And and I was just posting that and just post, post, post, post, post. That was it. That was it. And I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it because there was a community at a time as well where they would interact with me and I'd interact with them and people were asking, hey, how what are the best shoes for this? Or how can I improve that? Or and so that was that was cool as well. but I my intention was never to be an influencer or a creator, which I think is, yeah, it's probably sounds foreign. It sounds strange now, right? I think we like Jani Schmidt: mean, what, like around 400,000 followers or something, it sounds strange, but I feel like it's the Daniel: Yeah. Jani Schmidt: part of like when you're just natural and you, the part that, like the work that you're doing, you enjoy it it doesn't feel like work, that always shines through as well. You know, if you're Daniel: Yeah. It's just Jani Schmidt: just being yourself and if you're just doing what you love, it makes a big difference. And it's interesting you say that like around the cover time, because I actually feel like, because Australia and the A-League was one of the few leagues that kept playing throughout that time. obviously like football was on here because in Australia the A-League is playing at a different time than the other leagues. I think that's what brought the A-League back onto the world stage because scouts, clubs could watch live football played in Australia when everything else was kind of stopped. And then they would be like, there's a lot of young players in the A-League that are playing. And then out of nowhere now we're seeing like a lot of plays from the A-League young players getting signed in overseas. So I think it's that part of life where like you have to just be in the right place at the right time. You have to be present. You have to be there. You have to be consistent. And I think that's a key message again as well for young players out there regardless of what you want to do, whether that's football, whether that's like content, whether that's something completely different, you just have to be there. You have to enjoy what you're doing and you have to keep doing it over and over again for a long time until maybe the success is going to come. Daniel: Yeah, I think that's that's probably the yeah, like you you asked me why I know one of the things is like what do you recommend or what what would you advise would you give to inspiring young players? and my message is pretty much all around that, you know. it it's it's so true. to be constantly moving towards something and having blind faith. Like and w when you're authentic with it, it doesn't feel like work. So, you know, if you're doing if you're doing something you love, you're yeah, you find more energy. Jani Schmidt: And that is part one where you got to know Danny Cappellaro Part two comes out next Monday and we will go straight into the coaching side. Skill acquisition, small sided games, weak footwork and what a week inside the Melbourne City Academy actually looks like as a coach. Follow the show so you do not miss it and send this one to a player or parent who needs it. Enjoy your football journey and I see and hear you next week. Thanks for listening.