They moved to Australia five years ago and have forged a fabulous new life for themselves.

And 13-year-old footballer Lucas Portelli is now playing a high standard of football for Victoria, successfully competing in national championships.

The Portelli family from Huddersfield first set eyes on Australia in 2006 when they went for a holiday to see friends who had previously emigrated to Melbourne.

Apart from Lucas, the family is made up of mum Tracie, 44, dad Paul, 45 and 16-year-old Francesca.

Tracie said: “After seeing the difference in lifestyles we began to think about moving over here ourselves. We arrived in Australia in September 2009 and saying goodbye to our friends and family was one of the hardest things any of us had done in our lives. We were all pretty sad and anxious.”

Paul’s parents, June and Joe Portelli, and Tracie’s mum and stepfather, Elizabeth and Malcolm Dawson, all remain in Meltham.

The children have two great grandmothers. Mary Jessop lives in Lepton while Stella Portelli lives in Malta and the family has other relatives in both Malta and America.

Tracie added: “Our initial plan was to stay in Australia for one year to try out a new lifestyle and live in a different country. However, the longer we stayed the more settled into the lifestyle we became.

“It was still very hard. We missed our families and friends immensely and Paul missed playing snooker for Meltham Liberal Club and bowls at Meltham Bowling Club. There is no ‘Meltham Liberal Club’ comparison over here. Then again, there is no beach to go to after work in Meltham like we have here.”

Lucas attended Meltham C of E Primary School when the family left for Australia and Francesca was attending Honley High School where she had just completed Year 7.

Tracie was a social worker and and previously worked for Calderdale Council in the Looked After Children Team while Paul is a painter.

But Lucas is showing other Australian youngsters there is a great alternative to Aussie Rules football and cricket.

Tracie said: “Lucas has always been interested in football and permanently has a football at his feet which can get annoying at times. There have been many an ornament or picture knocked over when he has been kicking a ball around inside the house.”

Lucas used to play football for Hepworth United, coached by Macy Appleton, but he was spotted playing for Hepworth by a scout from Bolton Wanderers which led to him attending the Bolton training camps for one year.

Tracie added: “We have been fortunate enough to make some amazing friends while being in Australia and were lucky enough to meet up with an ex pat from London who had been in Australia for 17 years and was coaching a football team in our area. He was keen to get Lucas on the team after watching him play football at school and also play football with his own son.”

Lucas began playing football for a team called Skye United and was spotted again so in 2012 he was selected to attend trials for the Victorian Champions League.

This is where he plays football during a summer league, representing the southern region of Victoria.

The team was called the Southern Blue Tongues and from it Lucas, along with some of his team-mates, were selected to attend trials for the Under 13s Skilleroos, a development squad where there is a focus on developing skills.

Lucas trained three times per week in the Skilleroos squad, and played in matches once a week.

Lucas had to adjust to playing football in temperatures sometimes in the high 30s, rather than playing football in the freezing cold, with ice and snow around him as he did back in Huddersfield.

And it opened the family’s horizons to Australia – especially its vast distances and stunning coastlines.

Tracie said: “We were able to see more of Australia while Lucas was playing for the Skilleroos, travelling to Mount Gambia in South Australia and Woodonga which is situated on the Victoria-New South Wales Border.

“We also drove to Coffs Harbour in New South Wales so we could watch Lucas play in the National Youth Championships. This was a 15 hour drive, something you would never have contemplated doing while in the UK. Lucas flew to Coffs Harbour with the rest of his squad.

“There were 21 boys in the Under 13s Skilleroos squad and we were thrilled when Lucas was selected to be one of the 16 boys selected to be part of the Under 13s squad to represent Victoria in the National Youth Championships which are held annually in Coffs Harbour.”

Teams from 13 different associations across Australia compete throughout a week-long tournament for the Under 13 and Under 14 national titles. The Under 13 Victoria Team which Lucas was in finished in third place but he was spotted by representatives from Football Federation Victoria as a player that they will continue to monitor over the coming years.

There is no automatic transition to the Under 14’ Skilleroos team, so Lucas began to attend trials for the Under 14s Team last November.

He worked really hard at the trials and has been won a place in the Under 14s Skilleroos Squad for 2014.

There is a squad of 22 boys, and from this squad the coach will choose 16 boys to represent Victoria in this year’s National Youth Championships.

Tracie said: “Australia prides itself on promoting that it is a ‘sporting nation. However, we feel there is a lot more focus on children playing the Australian sport of AFL - known here as Aussie rules or cricket.

“It is our experience that the diverse European communities in Australia promote football within the community and make it accessible by all children.”

And Lucas passed trials to get into a specialist sports academy called Rowville and he is part of the football training programme at his school.

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