Crafty Caceres living boyhood dream

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ANTHONY Caceres is eager to make his mark in the Hyundai A-League after conquering his boyhood dream of becoming a professional footballer.

CENTRAL Coast Mariners young gun Anthony Caceres is eager to make his mark in the Hyundai A-League after conquering his boyhood dream of becoming a professional footballer.

During last season Caceres spent most of his time with the Central Coast Mariners Youth League team that went all the way in Australia-s premier youth competition.

Rewarded for his stellar performances, Caceres has been promoted to the first team squad for season 8 of the Hyundai A-League, having first trained full-time with the Mariners throughout the club-s 2012 AFC Champions League campaign.

“It-s always been a dream to do football as my job,” Caceres said. “I-ve been enjoying every minute at training, it-s intense, I-m learning a lot, so I-m very happy.”

“I-ve found my overall fitness has improved. My strength and agility also.”

“Every second of every session I-m learning something, and I-m trying to take everything in,” he said.

Caceres has his believers and most importantly one of them is Mariners Head Coach Graham Arnold.

“He impressed last year in the Youth Team in the role that he played there,” Arnold said. “He moves the ball around but is also very tactically aware.”

Even though Caceres admits he has to work hard to turn potential into performances, Arnold believes fans shouldn-t be surprised to see the midfielder stringing the play together for the yellow and navy this season.

“This year will be a bit of a learning curve for him but I think he will get a fair bit of game time,” Arnold said.