Jordi Francis Valadon (born 4 March 2003) is an Australian professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

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

club

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

Early life

Raised in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Victoria, Valadon played youth football for Box Hill United and Melbourne City. He attended Mazenod College, located in Mulgrave, where he also played and captained the school football team. Valadon grew up supporting

Club career

Melbourne City

After playing regularly in the academy, Valadon was registered into the

National Premier Leagues The National Premier Leagues (NPL) is a men's national association football competition in Australia which acts as the second tier of the sport in the country below the A-League. The NPL consists of the highest level state league in each state- ...

and A-League Youth squads for Melbourne City Youth. He finished with three goals and three assists for City in the 2022 National Premier Leagues Victoria 3 as his side achieved automatic promotion. Having registered an

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 ...

bench appearance earlier on 29 January 2022, Valadon made his professional debut in an

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

group clash against BG Pathum United on 15 April. City contested a 1–1 draw at full-time in their first Champions League match of their history.

Melbourne Victory

Valadon joined

early-2023 after holding discussions with Victory youth coach Joe Palatsides. He made his first-team debut as a substitute in a 2–1 victory over

Macarthur FC Macarthur Football Club is an Australian professional association football, soccer club based in South Western Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in Australia's premier soccer competition, the A-League, under Professional sports league organi ...

, and then his starting debut six days later in a 1–0 defeat to

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland. competing in Australia's premier men's competition, A-League Men, which is the top tier Australia's football pyramid. When Queensland Lions F.C. were ...

on 29 April. Following the conclusion of the 2022–23 season, Valadon signed his first professional contract – a two-year scholarship deal – with Victory on 5 July. However, on 7 August, Valadon was ruled out with a hamstring injury from training and was expected to receive surgery on the following Thursday. Valadon played 15 matches during the 2023–24 A-League Men season and started Melbourne Victory's grand final against

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 ...

. The match ended in a 3-1 defeat for Melbourne Victory.

Honours

Melbourne Victory *

Championship Finalist: 2023–24, 2024–25 *

Australia Cup The Australia Cup (currently known as the Hahn Australia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the national association football, soccer single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Fo ...

Finalist:

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Melbourne Victory NPL * National Premier Leagues Victoria 3 Finalist:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 The National Premier Leagues Victoria (NPL Victoria or NPL VIC) is a semi-professional association football, soccer league in Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level w ...

Champions:

Melbourne City NPL * National Premier Leagues Victoria 3 Finalist:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Australia U-23 *

WAFF U-23 Championship The WAFF U-23 Championship () is an annual international football competition organised by the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) for the men's under-23 national teams of West Asia. Results Teams reaching the top four * Results from host ...

: runner-up

References

External links

* 2003 births Living people Australian men's soccer players Australian people of Mauritian descent Soccer players from Melbourne Men's association football midfielders Melbourne City FC players Melbourne Victory FC players National Premier Leagues players Victoria Premier League players A-League Men players Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-footy-defender-stub