Alvin Ceccoli (; born 5 August 1974) is an Australian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played for three

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

clubs (

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Mar ...

and

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional men's soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently since its formation, u ...

) and was capped internationally for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Club career

Alvin Ceccoli is of

Sammarinese Sammarinese () are citizens and people of the Republic of San Marino. Language San Marino recognizes Italian as the official language. The indigenous Sammarinese language is a variety of Romagnol spoken by approximately 83 percent of the populati ...

heritage. Alvin started his

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

(NSL) career at Wollongong Wolves in 1995 as a 21-year-old. He played 156 matches in the

, punctuated by a short stint in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

with

AEK Athens FC A.E.K. Football Club (), known simply as A.E.K. (; ) in Greece and AEK Athens internationally, is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica, Greece. Established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the ...

. He won successive NSL Championships with Wollongong in 1998/99 and 1999/2000 before joining Parramatta Power, becoming part of the losing grand final side in 2003/04. He was one of seven players signed by

from the defunct NSL. Ceccoli's first season at the glamour club was a rebirth for his career. Alvin not only became one of the strongest defenders in the league, but also earned his second national team cap against

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

in a qualifying match for the

Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior list of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the contin ...

in 2007, as a reward for an excellent season with Sydney FC. During the second season with Sydney however, he had some disagreements with new coach

Terry Butcher Terry Ian Butcher (born 28 December 1958) is an English football manager and former player. During his playing career as a defender, Butcher captained the England national team, winning 77 caps in a ten-year international career that feature ...

which soured his relationship with the club, and he sought a move elsewhere. A transfer to Japanese second division team

Avispa Fukuoka is a Japanese professional football club based in Hakata, Fukuoka. They currently compete in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. History Earlier years in Fujieda The club were originally based in Fujieda, Shizu ...

allowed him to reunite with former Sydney coach

Pierre Littbarski Pierre Michael Littbarski (; born 16 April 1960) is a German professional football manager and former player of 1. FC Köln and the West Germany national team. Known for his dribbling abilities, he was mainly used as an attacking midfielder ...

, and was formally released by Sydney on 16 January 2007. He spent close to a year at Avispa and was released at the end of the season. On 3 January 2008 Ceccoli signed a contract for the remainder of the

season with

Central Coast Mariners FC Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast (New South Wales), Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League, A-League Men, under Professional sports lea ...

as cover for Dean Heffernan, his contract running until after the 2008 Grand Final on 25 February. Ceccoli agreed on 20 January 2008 to sign with rival

club

for their

2008 AFC Champions League The 2008 AFC Champions League was the 27th AFC Champions League, the top-level Asian club football tournament, and the 6th under the current AFC Champions League title. It was the last AFC Champions League before the competition expanded to 32 te ...

campaign beginning in March. It would be his third

club in as many years, but was notably absent from Adelaide's first two ACL matches. On 20 March 2008 it was revealed he had left the club to return home to

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

to be close to his young family. Staying locally, he has joined Illawarra Premier League club Dandaloo FC for 2008. In 2015, he was selected in Sydney FC's team of the decade. After leading Corrimal Rangers FC to Grand Final glory in the 2019 season of the Illawarra Premier League Ceccoli decided to retire due to ongoing injury problems. He is held in high regard in the Illawarra region as a pioneer of local football. Ceccoli now takes on an Assistant Coach role alongside Roger Jonovski at Corrimal Rangers focusing on youth development pathways.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

Honours

Central Coast Mariners * A-League Premiership: 2007–2008 Sydney FC * A-League Championship: 2005–2006 * Oceania Club Championship: 2004–2005 Wollongong Wolves * NSL Championship: 1999–2000, 2000–2001 * Oceania Club Championship: 2000–2001 Australia *

OFC Nations Cup The OFC Men's Nations Cup, known as the OFC Nations Cup before the 2024 OFC Men's Nations Cup, 2024 edition, is the primary association football competition contested by the senior list of men's national association football teams, men's natio ...

: runner-up

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

References

External links

Oz Football profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ceccoli, Alvin 1974 births Living people Soccer players from Sydney Australian men's soccer players A-League Men players National Soccer League (Australia) players J2 League players Adelaide United FC players AEK Athens F.C. players Avispa Fukuoka players Central Coast Mariners FC players Parramatta Power SC players Sydney FC players Wollongong Wolves FC players Australian people of Sammarinese descent 1998 OFC Nations Cup players Australian expatriate men's soccer players Australia men's international soccer players Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Australian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Australian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Men's association football fullbacks Wollongong United FC players