“With Adelaide, it’s finished” – but Carrusca hoping to extend A-League career
A-League champion Marcelo Carrusca might have been cut from Adelaide United’s squad at season’s end but that doesn’t mean he will be lost from the competition.
Marcelo Carrusca says he is weighing up offers to play on in the A-League. Photo: Tracey Nearmy / AAP
The mercurial playmaker says he is mulling over “a couple of offers” to kick on with a sixth season in Australia.
And the 33-year-old is doing it as an Australian citizen.
Carrusca wasn’t offered a new deal to stay at United after five seasons at Cooper’s Stadium, three of which saw him voted into the A-League team of the season.
He claimed the 2015/16 A-League double with the Reds and also helped lift the inaugural FFA Cup in 2014.
Armed with an Australian passport for the first time – meaning he doesn’t have to take up one of each club’s five precious visa slots – Carrusca is bullish on his A-League future.
“I have a couple of offers and my agent is talking with a couple of clubs,” he said.
“It’s good for me to be an Australian citizen for my career and for my life in Australia.
“We’ll see what happens in the next couple of weeks.”
The former Argentina youth international said he had no beef with the Reds after incoming coach Marco Kurz decided against extending his stay in Adelaide.
“With Adelaide, it’s finished. They are looking for a different kind of player now,” he said.
“I understand of course. It’s for them for what they want to do.”
Carrusca reportedly spurned a new contract from United in May after the departure of coach Guillermo Amor.
Club boss Grant Mayer told NewsCorp this month “there is no offer now”.
“He rejected the offer, we refused to increase the offer and like in any negotiation, you pull the existing offer… that’s just normal business,” he told The Advertiser.
-AAP
