Unwanted and kept away from the limelight at Western Sydney, it was only appropriate that Terry Antonis' moment in the sun came against his former team.
The Melbourne City midfielder is living the dream after rounding out a thumping 7-0 win over the Wanderers with an extraordinary goal that lives among the best ever seen in the A-League Men competition.
Antonis latched onto a defensive clearance in the 82nd minute, knocking the ball over Oscar Priestman's head then smacking a half-volley, from inside the centre circle, over goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas' head and into the net.
"That's Puskas worthy, I reckon," teammate Max Caputo said.
"It was pretty crazy. I've never seen anything like that in real life. But it was very good."
Coach Aurelio Vidmar added: "You might as well give him goal of the season for sure.Â
"It'd be very hard to top I'd say."
After scoring, Antonis, who was frozen out at Western Sydney last season, made a beeline for the Wanderers bench and made a 'call me' gesture to former coach Marko Rudan as he was mobbed by his teammates.
"He probably couldn't have scripted it any better than that," Vidmar said.
"He was probably dreaming last night of coming on and scoring and that's exactly what he did."
Caputo added: "It had meaning behind it, I think."
Antonis, 30, has been unwilling to speak publicly on what happened at the Wanderers - and didn't want to speak to media after his wonder goal on Tuesday night.
But clearly his time in Western Sydney, especially late on, wasn't a happy one.
After playing 21 games in 2021-22, he fell out of favour and didn't feature in a minute of the Wanderers' 2022-23 campaign.
The club and player parted ways last May, before Antonis signed at City, where he has built fitness and form.
"Happy for him. He had, as we all know, a pretty tough season last year, and came here," Vidmar said.
"Our coaching staff and our medical staff have done a terrific job in trying to get Terry and his body - he was a bit banged-up - to get him to the state that he's in.
"It's his fourth goal this year. So he's chipped in with some important goals for us, he's a terrific guy and really pleased for him."
Rudan didn't front for his post-match press conference, with assistant Jean-Paul de Marigny instead having to field a question about Antonis' celebration.
"That's football. If you're telling me he had a hard time at the Wanderers, yeah, okay," he said.
"He scored a great goal, celebrated the way that he wanted to celebrate. That's the beauty about football.Â
"That's the way it goes, really. That's it."
