Kaz Patafta (born October 25th, 1988 in Canberra) is an Australian football (soccer) offensive midfielder who recently signed for the Portuguese side Benfica.

Patafta led the under-17 Australian during the 2005 World Championships in Peru, catching the eye of a host of keen judges who followed his influential performances. Until that date, the young Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) scholarship holder, was ignored by Australia's A-League squads but soon caught the attention of two European giants: PSV Eindhoven (whose interest was due to Guus Hiddink's - the Australian national team manager - recomendation) and SL Benfica. The Portuguese side won the race for the Australian youngster who joined their B-Squad on January 2006.

The next big thing is ... small

November 26, 2005


KAZ Patafta is young, talented and - most importantly - available, and Socceroos coach Guus Hiddink likes him so much he wants to add him to his Australian stable at PSV Eindhoven.

The 17-year-old midfield playmaker has already caught the eye of a host of keen judges following a series of influential performances as he skippered the Joeys during the world under-17 championships in Peru midway through the year. But it was Patafta's presence in the Socceroos' camp in the lead-up to last week's World Cup decider which piqued the interest of Hiddink, and PSV are now likely to join Portuguese champions Benfica in the race for his signature.

Under international rules, Patafta cannot move overseas until he turns 18 next October. PSV already have Socceroos midfielder Jason Culina, former Socceroo Lindsay Wilson, and Australian youth international Nathan Coe on their books.

While a player shamefully ignored by A-League clubs seems all but certain to start his professional career abroad, he will not be lost to his country. Patafta admits the experience of mingling with the national squad ahead of the Uruguay game was one he will never forget.

"Playing for the Socceroos, at the end of the day that's always going to be my main goal," he said. "Being in the camp, going to the game, seeing the incredible support for the Socceroos, it was one of the best weeks of my life. It was just an amazing experience."

Patafta, born-and-bred in Canberra and a scholarship holder at the AIS, was brought into the camp by national youth coach Ange Postecoglou. He spent the three days leading into the game watching training, staying in the team hotel and, in a special memory, playing in a five versus two grid game with some of the players and the coaching staff at Parramatta Stadium on the morning of the match.

"Do I feel privileged? Extremely," he said. "Just to be around the boys, to see what it's like being with the national team, was fantastic. It's the first time I've met a lot of the players, but they all looked after me. Harry Kewell used to be my idol but now it's probably Tim Cahill. He came over and said 'hi', he was really friendly. The way he's got to the top - at my age he was turned down by a lot of clubs in Australia but he stuck it out and went to Millwall, and look where he's at now. What he's done, it's inspired me."

Patafta may soon be a source of inspiration to others. A rare breed in Australian terms - a left-footed creator who wears No.10 and plays like one - he is set to be fast-tracked into the Socceroos, although circumstance has probably killed his chances of being a bolter for the World Cup squad.

PATAFTA NAMED CAPTAIN OF QANTAS JOEYS
Thursday 8 September 2005

Canberra-based midfielder Kaz Patafta has been confirmed as the captain of the Qantas Joeys ahead of the team's departure tomorrow for the FIFA U-17 World Championship in Peru.

The AIS scholarship holder has been involved throughout the current campaign dating back to the team's first matches in the USA last December.

"Apart from being a very talented player, Kaz is very mature and takes a leadership role within the group," said Qantas Joeys coach Ange Postecoglou.

"Kaz has already been on a number of overseas tours, he is pretty experienced for a young guy and is one of the players we will be building the team around.

"As a player he is technically gifted and a natural left-footer who we expect will be a real asset to the team at the tournament."

Name:
Kaz Patafta

Sport:
Football

Position/event:
Midfield

Date of birth / birthplace:
25 October 1988 - Canberra

What year did you begin your AIS scholarship?
2004

What is your most significant achievement in sport?
AIS scholarship, Australian U/20 tour of France and Belgium

What is your major sporting goal?
To play for Australia and become a professional Football (soccer) player

Who are your idols, and why (not necessarily sporting)?
David Beckham - he has never given up and also worked at what he wanted

Who has most influenced your sporting career, and why?
Parents because they have been so supportive

Do you work or study while training - if so what?
Study

How do you hope to be remembered when you retire from your sport?
As a person who can be respected for what they have done

What are your career goals after sport?
Continue with the game in some form

What do you regard as the most memorable sporting moment?
Captain of U/17 Australia 2004 Joeys camp

Under international rules, Patafta cannot move overseas until he turns 18 next October

Venue: Restelo stadium, Lisbon

Referee: Pedro Henriques (Lisbon)

E. AMADORA (1): Paulo Lopes; Tony, Hugo Carreira, Fonte, Edu Silva, Marco Paulo, Luís Loureiro, Sérgio Marques, Tiago Gomes, Cleiton and Dário.

Subs: Zamorano, Anselmo, Paulo Sérgio, Rui Borges, Pedro Simões, Tarcisio, Marcelo and Rui Duarte

Coach: Daúto Faquirá.

BENFICA (2): Moreira; Nélson, Anderson, Ricardo Rocha, Tiago Gomes, Beto, Diego, Nuno Assis, Marco Ferreira, Marcel and Kikin.

Subs: Mantorras, Paulo Jorge, Manu, Kaz Patafta and Miguel Vítor.

Coach: Fernando Santos

Pack your bags, son, if you want to be the next Harry
September 10, 2006


Despite the success of the A-League, Australia's brightest young talents must still move to Europe, like rising star Kaz Patafta has, if they want to succeed on the world stage, Matthew Hall writes.

IN HOLLAND in May, before Australia's World Cup campaign kicked off, assistant coach Graham Arnold turned to Kaz Patafta and rang out a wake-up call.

"Arnie said that I wasn't even born when he was trying to get to the World Cup, so I shouldn't waste my time here," Patafta says.

Guus Hiddink, impressed with his potential, had summoned Patafta to train with the Socceroos. The 17-year-old may not have been part of Australian football's chequered past but the plan is that he's very much the future.

In Mierlo, where the Australians prepared for their trip to Germany, Patafta was a welcome sideshow while most observers concentrated on the soap opera that surrounded Harry Kewell's tender groin.

Patafta impressed in training drills, pulling tricks and ambitious skills out of his kitbag in scratch matches against players who would go on to impress at the World Cup.

With Kewell's cup participation in doubt until the last minute, a cruel but recurring question (in Australian football) was asked: is Patafta the next Kewell? The answer, of course, is no. There is but one Kewell.

But where is Australia's next big thing? Patafta brushes away suggestions he might be Australia's next football idol.

"I look up to Harry so much because he's achieved what I am going for myself," he says. "I can also relate to him, being a foreign player, by himself at a big club in Europe. Harry is one of my idols."

There's a catch: while Hiddink rated him, the Australian public has barely heard of Patafta - if at all - and, even though he captained Australia at the World Youth Championship in Peru last year, he was bizarrely unable to earn an A-League contract last season.

But Portuguese giants Benfica saw something no Australian club could and in January, Patafta signed with the legendary Eusebio's club.

The past nine months have been a rocket ride. Apart from his Socceroos cameo, the kid from Canberra survived an end-of-season cut at Benfica when 15 friends from the youth team didn't.

A fortnight ago, he was called into the club's first-team squad.

"Growing up in Canberra, it was always my dream to play in Europe," he says. "Unfortunately, I didn't get any offers from A-League clubs. It would have been ideal to get that experience at first-team level but, the way things have turned out, it has been good for me."

Under FIFA regulations, Patafta's father has to be in Lisbon with his son. Peter Patafta has an apartment and Kaz lives at Benfica's state-of-the-art training facility with the club's other foreign players.
He takes Portuguese lessons but is also being schooled in the art of survival. Football in Europe is big business and a door to opportunity.

Patafta's rivals are not just players from other teams but kids from Portugal, Mozambique, Brazil and Angola. "It's cutthroat . . . these boys have the same dream as me and the reality is that only one player will step up," Patafta says. "On the field it's competitive, even though we wear the same jersey.

"You can't hold back. You can't wait for people. I'm not here to make friends. I'm here for myself."

Hiddink called another of Australia's next big things to Holland: Kristian Sarkies, a midfielder with A-League club Melbourne Victory. Hiddink was impressed enough to consider Sarkies as a last-minute replacement for Kewell and Tim Cahill if Australia's star players did not recover from injury.

Yet, after the Socceroos training camp broke for Germany, the fates of Patafta and Sarkies split. Patafta is fast-tracked at Benfica. Sarkies struggles to get an A-League start.

Bernie Mandic, who has been Kewell's manager since the Socceroo was Patafta's age, says the lack of player development in Australia is becoming a serious issue.

"Kristian Sarkies is the only player in the A-League that I believe is ready to immediately play in Europe," Mandic says. "What he showed with the Socceroos in Holland was outstanding and the fact Guus left him as cover for Kewell and Cahill demonstrated that Hiddink thinks he is good enough for Europe.

"But, for some reason, he has not been able to get a regular start with Melbourne Victory. The same thing happened with Stuart Musialik with Newcastle last season. This sort of nonsense not only damages the player and his confidence, but it's counterproductive for the long-term future of Australian football."

Agent Leo Karis is another on the lookout for Australia's next superstar. He says Sarkies and Patafta will take different paths to the 2010 World Cup - if not just the next 12 months.

"The difference will be enormous," Karis says. "Kristian will be under pressure to help win matches for a coach who is under enormous pressure this season.

"Ernie Merrick's primary focus is to win matches because his employer demands that - not develop Sarkies, Adrian Leijer or other young players. But Patafta will be developed. He will have a technical football system instilled in him and ball control, first touch, vision and flair will form part of his development."
Mandic insists Kewell's transition from Smithfield superstar to World Cup hero was no accident. Talented Australian kids have long been seduced by a European contract and European clubs have been fast to flutter eyelids at raw talent.

However, marriages are not made in heaven, and a brief glance at the history of many A-League players shows many failed romances with clubs across Europe.

"Harry was not a fluke," Mandic says. "His father Rod was probably the most important difference in how Harry's career has developed.

"He avoided being seduced by promises of fame and fortune from glamorous clubs and opted for Leeds, a club that was in a rebuilding phase and had Britain's best youth development program.

"Unfortunately, most parents fall for the exaggerated promises of agents and clubs and their sons pay the price.

"I know of at least five other players who had the potential to be in our starting 11 at the World Cup - if their parents' egos and greed hadn't led them to opt for clubs that were beyond the players' ability."

Karis says unless there is a radical overhaul of local coaching systems, several possible teenage prodigies will have to go overseas.

European clubs have courted Terry Antonis since The Sun-Herald unveiled him three years ago as a 10-year-old wunderkind.

"Terry has been courted by European giants for the past two years and is an exceptional talent who will travel to Italy three or four times in the next 12 months for month-long training," Karis says.

"If the Australian coaching systems are not overhauled now, Terry will have outgrown them."

A quick fix for the FFA, struggling with the introduction of an elite youth league and overhauling youth coaching, will not be easy.

Karis believes the search for the next Kewell requires comprehensive changes to the current system.

"With a 20-player roster and just two under-20s included, as A-League rules are now, it is not possible to produce star kids," he says. "A youth league is definitely required to develop 150 to 200 players. It also requires expert technical coaching. Imagine what Guus Hiddink could do with a centralised youth policy."

Recently, in Lisbon, Patafta experienced a 24-hour high and low common to many want-to-be professionals. This time, it was a youth team coach spelling out the reality of success.

"My coach was telling me that it was tough here at Benfica and not to get upset if they loan me out to another club," Patafta says. "It was very negative talk."

The day after the reality check, that youth team coach got a phone call from the club's new head coach.

"The first team wanted me for a game," Patafta says. "It hasn't happened in a while that a youth-team player has been called up. I'm keeping my feet on the ground but it's only impossible if you tell yourself it is. It's a good feeling to prove people wrong when they don't believe you."

Huge article on Kaz from the Sydney Sun Herald:
I can't wait to see him get some playing time. Hopefully he is the next Kewell but just hope he doesn't get injuries like him

Played against Kaz here in austrlia in a friendly at parklea

he is going to be a great player iof he continues with the progress he is making

the way to describe him is just a polished midfielder, similar IMO to a steven gerard,

give him time and he will be awesome

Who was Kaz playing for in Australia?

well, kaz has just been called for the friendly game against 2nd leaguer's Olivais e Moscavide. it will take place tomorrow.

i heard on the weekend kaz was offered a 3 year contract at benfica and he accepted.,,dragon ninga where are you from in leiria? forca portmosense!

Can anyone confirm this? I'd be interested to know. Hope he keeps on getting opportunities.

I know he's been involved in your friendlies and cup match or somthing for the senior team?

Yeah dude he got the contract. I speak to his girlfriend so I get all the inside goss. I know he has played one friendly against Amadora because I watched it on TV.

so whats the word on this kid? is he going to make a significant fact on benfica anytime sooon?

Benfica's Aussie to head home
June 18, 2007

A-League champion Melbourne Victory look set to sign one of Australia's most promising talents from one of Europe's biggest clubs on a loan deal.

Teenage midfielder Kaz Patafta, who has spent the past 18 months at Portuguese giant Benfica, is expected to head back to Australia to join Victory for the upcoming season.

Patafta, 18, captained Australia's under-17 side at the 2005 world championships and was a training partner with Australia's World Cup squad last year.

Victory declined to comment on whether the club had signed Patafta.

But Portuguese newspaper Record and Portuguese television today quoted Benfica as saying it had agreed a €50,000 ($75,000) loan deal with Victory for Patafta.

A diminutive attacking midfielder who stands around 170cm, Patafta would add to the Victory's impressive list of off-season signings including Costa Rica international Carlos Hernandez and Socceroos centre-back Ljubo Milicevic.

Originally from Canberra, Patafta is an Australian Institute of Sport graduate but was overlooked by A-League clubs in the lead-up to the first season of the competition.

Instead he ended up securing a dream move to Benfica, playing mainly youth team football this season for a club which took part in the European Champions League and finished third in the Portuguese Liga.

Patafta first came to prominence when he caught the eye of then-Socceroos coach Guus Hiddink with his national under-17 team performances.

Hiddink selected him as a training partner for the senior side ahead of both the World Cup qualifier against Uruguay in late 2005, and in both Holland and Germany ahead of last year's World Cup finals.

So impressed was Hiddink that the youngster was linked with a move to Hiddink's Dutch club PSV Eindhoven before the coach quit to take up full-time coaching duties with Russia.

Victory is expected to enter the A-League season with a 21-man roster, leaving them just three more vacancies in its squad.

Victory coach Ernie Merrick has confirmed the club wants an experienced back-up striker to cover for Socceroos Archie Thompson and Danny Allsopp, as well as two more younger players to round out the squad.

Patafta in line for Victory - SBS

The player touted as the next Harry Kewell - Australian youth international - Kaz Patafta - has confirmed he's considering a deal to join Melbourne Victory in the A-League next season.

The 18-year-old, who trained with the Socceroos' World Cup squad last year and is currently on the books at Benfica, is due to have discussions next week with the Portuguese club to sort out his playing future.

And in a bid to play regular first-team football Patafta won't rule out a move to the Victory.

"The next step at the moment for me is to make the transition to senior-level football," Patafta told SBS from Portugal.

"As a player you try to find the best environment to suit you, and whether it's in Australia or whether it's here in Europe, in Portugal, I'm going to see what comes from these talks and take it from there."

Portuguese media are reporting that Benfica has agreed a 50,000 euro ($A75,000) loan deal with Melbourne.

The Victory declined to confirm the negotiations, saying it only released information once a deal was complete.

Patafta stakes claim
By Grantley Bernard
August 13, 2007

TEENAGER Kaz Patafta could be on the verge of displacing Costa Rica international Carlos Hernandez in Melbourne Victory's starting line-up for the first game of the A-League season.

On loan from Portuguese giant Benfica, Patafta came off the bench at half-time of Saturday night's 1-0 pre-season cup loss to Sydney FC and put in a dazzling performance to press his claims for a starting spot against Wellington Phoenix in a fortnight.

Patafta almost snatched a late equaliser, hitting the bar with a drive from outside the penalty area, and his energy and creativity appeared more than anything Hernandez could muster in his 65 minutes on the Olympic Park pitch.

Victory coach Ernie Merrick conceded Hernandez was still not fully fit, nor was he settled on his opening-day line-up, which means the 18-year-old Patafta could slot into the crucial role between the strikers and central midfielders.

"He's certainly given me a challenge because he had an outstanding game when he came on in the second half," Merrick said. "Kaz did a great job when he came on and, every time he's got match time and in training, he's coming on in leaps and bounds."

Hernandez, Victory's prize signing, could be relegated to the bench if his fitness does not improve.

Having gone winless through five pre-season cup games, there is no room for error when Victory starts its premiership defence, but Merrick was not worried about Hernandez's form.

"No concerns whatsoever," Merrick said. "It's always been a fitness thing. You can see the touches and through-balls and he just needs to lose more weight and needs to get fitter.

"That will be taken into consideration when selecting the first 11, but we wanted to play him as much as possible."

Apart from losing too much possession, Victory's performance was encouraging from several aspects, not least the impact of Patafta and fellow substitute Adrian Caceres.

The defence could not be faulted for Alex Brosque's 34th-minute winner and Steve Pantelidis, Rodrigo Vargas and Daniel Piorkowski, and goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos, were solid throughout.

The main concern might be up front, where Archie Thompson and Danny Allsopp worked hard, but again failed to score.

Not that Merrick appears to be losing sleep over the lack of goals, believing strongly in the Thompson-Allsopp combination and rating the overall performance as Victory's best of the pre-season.

"No doubt about it," Merrick said. "We were good in the first half and even better in the second half.

"I just take a lot from that. The worst thing that could have happened was to win 1-0 and play badly. But to play like that and have clear-cut chances ... it's coming together.

"I don't think we'll ever play such a high-quality game and not score again."