Northern Inland Football: Andre Caetano proud of Souths United FC after ending on win

The Brazilian, who moved from his small hometown of Goianesia (nestled inland about three hours northwest of the nation's capital city, Brasilia) to Australia more than 15 years ago, first came to the country for work.

Since then, he has travelled across NSW for various professional opportunities - but throughout that time, he has continued to indulge his deep love of soccer.

"I've been everywhere," Caetano said.

"I moved from here to Taree, Newcastle, Scone ... it's always chasing the money with work.

"I've played [football] in all different divisions. I played in Toowoomba for six years, I played for Muswellbrook in the Newcastle comp, for Taree I played against all the big guns in the Mid North Coast comp."

The 38-year-old returned to Souths United FC this season, where he last played and coached in 2017 when the club won a premiership in the local Tamworth competition. His most recent season in Tamworth was 2021, where he briefly switched allegiances and took charge of Moore Creek.

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After coming back to Souths in 2023, Caetano expressed his pride in the first grade team following their final game on Saturday, despite their lacklustre results on paper this year.

The men in green and gold won three games in 2023, but were competitive in almost every other fixture and rarely got beaten by more than one or two goals despite battling consistently with injuries.

"It was definitely not the easiest [season]," Caetano said.

"It was a tough one when it comes to short numbers, but you've got to give it to [the players]. They always put their hand up, they didn't want to quit.

"Most of these guys always put their hand up to play two games. How can you say it's not a great club?"

This season also marked Caetano's seventh year as a coach. Even as he nears 40 years of age, he was still eager to take to the field - but he did admit it was "not very easy".

And though the lifelong nomad loves the family atmosphere at Souths, he could not say for sure where he would be next year.

"We'll see what's going to happen," Caetano said.

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