TIAGO CALVANO might not have enjoyed the most fruitful spell at the Newcastle Jets but he is confident he can make amends with Sydney FC after signing a short-term deal for the rest of the season.
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The 31-year-old Brazilian struggled with the pace of the A-League at times during his stint at the Jets, and eventually fell out of favour with coach Gary van Egmond, who was quick to grant him a release when Sydney's offer emerged this week.
However, he has no doubts he can make a swift transition to life with the Sky Blues, and said he can put his best foot forward in new surroundings.
''I'm very happy,'' he said. ''It's a great club, a nice city. I'm very excited. I come here to do my best and if you see how many goals we conceded, it's a lot. I'll try to help my teammates and do my best to fix this. But I'm not doing it alone. We have a good chance to improve this point. We always can do better, and I hope that here I will do better [than in Newcastle].''
Asked if his new side could make the finals, despite being ninth, Tiago said: ''That's why I'm here, and our goal is to make the finals.''
The deal was done quickly. So quickly in fact, the player barely had time to contemplate the move before the paperwork was submitted to FFA headquarters on Wednesday night.
''On Tuesday, I went to training and there Robbie Middleby [Jets chief executive] came to me and said, 'Tiago, Sydney are interested in you,' and I said, 'Oh, that would be great,''' he said. ''I had some more calls from Robbie, then I went to the office and things went very quick. In one day, we agreed everything.''
Tiago had nothing but good things to say about his former club, even if he had to battle for his spot in the first team.
''It was really good. I really enjoyed the club, the fans. It's a small but beautiful city, very relaxed. But that's part of my past, and my focus now is on helping Sydney to go and do better,'' he said. ''I didn't play much in the last weeks, but I am Brazilian, and with heart I will give 100 per cent for this club.''
He has already forgiven the Sydney fans for the bottle of water thrown in his direction during a recent match against the Sky Blues.
''It was good. I was very thirsty in this moment, and they threw me a bottle,'' he joked.
On Calvano's side is an impressive CV, having penned terms with Italian side Perugia as a youngster and then moving on to Barcelona B - the reserve team for the Spanish giants - before stints with Young Boys of Bern in Switzerland, and German sides Duisburg and Fortuna Dusseldorf.
Calvano's fall down the pecking order in Newcastle does not bother Sydney FC coach Frank Farina, who said the Brazilian had the quality to make a difference to Sydney's push for the finals.
While he looked at plenty of options to cover Pascal Bosschaart, who will miss the rest of the campaign with an Achilles heel injury, he is content with his choice.
''With Pascal out for the rest of the season, he's a welcome introduction,'' Farina said. ''We saw this morning his ability to talk and organise, so it should be a good help for us with 11 games to go.
''To be brutally honest, we were looking at a number of options. A lot of the options didn't come off - Tiago was one of them, but we weren't sure if Newcastle would release him. It came down to somebody who was ready to go straight away, so it narrowed the field down a bit. When Newcastle agreed to release him, it was good for us.''
