My footballing journey started at Fremantle United in 1990 playing u14s, (yes a late starter to the game!) then playing through to 1994 in youth teams. A knee injury early 1995 forced me to stop playing and focus on coaching juniors, starting with u11s at Fremantle United having a great year finishing undefeated and winning the cup!
That success triggered a passion in coaching and from 1995 to 1997 and 2002/03 i coached a variety of junior teams at Fremantle United, culminating in winning div 1 championship in 2003 for the u16s (in which a young Rob Caruso played a pivotal role!). After the team disbanded i coached at Fremantle Spirit (Saturday leagues), u15s champions league development squad in 2005 and had a great year finishing runners up in the championship but winning Knockout Cup!
As a coach i had two good years there, then in 2007 was appointed assistant coach for league under Joe Vinciguerra at southern spirit in Amateur Premier League and subsequently spent 12 years at the club! Between 2010 - 2014 took charge of the Reserves and had some great years winning 2011 - 2012 League titles and a cup final (loss) in 2011.
The 2012 season was especially memorable as we finished undefeated to win the league title! In 2015 and 2016 i was appointed head coach of Southern Spirits first team and guided the club to safety both years. After being exonerated of my duties in early 2017, i remained at the club to help the Spirit masters team in which i took that team to participate in the ethnic world cup (starting in 2016 ) representing italy , winning 3 in a row 2016 - 2018!
Concurrent to that my good friend and ex player Rob caruso approached me in mid 2017 to help establish a new club , Perth AFC in which i am now proudly a part of and striving to build as a strong amateur club!
-Marco Celesti
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