Alex Chidiac - "We're bringing it back to the fun side of things"

What are the first three words that spring to mind when you think of Alex Chidiac? For the player herself, the first word came to mind immediately.

“Edgy,” she laughed, a huge grin on her face. “I’d also say… unique."

Alex Chidiac is a player who is no stranger to the spotlight. It’s easy to forget that she’s still only 24 – it feels like she’s been a household name to the Australian football public for the better part of the last decade.

Her achievements speak for themselves. Twenty-two appearances for the CommBank Matildas after debuting as a 16-year-old. A-League Women’s Champion with Melbourne City in 2015/16, and Melbourne Victory in 2021/22. PFA Young Women’s Footballer of the Year in 2017 and 2018. Selection in the A-League Women PFA Team of the Season, 2016-17 and 2021-22.

It’s a list of accolades that any player would be proud of. However, it has been far from smooth sailing for the midfielder.

Many fans first heard the name Alex Chidiac back in 2013. At only 14 years old, the teenager scored a remarkable 33 goals in the South Australian Women’s Premier League, and was rewarded by being named player of the season. Inevitably, the hype began to build around the youngster.

“I was getting asked to do all of these interviews when I was really young about being tipped to be the next Matilda, and I was like, ‘Okay then?,’” Chidiac reflects with a smile.

“Things just kept happening, there was success after success, I debuted really early [for the CommBank Matildas], things were looking really positive.”

In 2018, Chidiac signed with Atletico Madrid. At the time, it was a move that was truly a leap into the unknown. It was before the CommBank Matildas exodus to overseas clubs in 2019/20, and she was still only 19 years of age. It is a young age for anyone to be moving abroad by yourself, especially to a country where you don’t speak the language.

Embracing the challenge of moving overseas is something that Chidiac is passionate about.

“It brings you a different experience and different outlook on life,” she explained.

“I think it’s just the lessons that come from that. You have to adapt to a new scenario. You see things from a completely different point of view as well, and that expands your view on the world.

“I love that feeling of connection with someone that you can’t actually communicate with.”

However, it was at Atletico that she experienced her first real setbacks in the footballing world. Her playing time began to falter, and she was overlooked for the CommBank Matildas.

“I was overseas, I made a big move to Spain, I was so excited about that,” she said.

“But then… getting dropped right before the [2019] World Cup, and being in Spain away from everybody, was probably when I hit my biggest low. Because I had not dealt with that from a young age.

“Everything had happened so quickly and I felt like there was no real support, at a young age, to deal with the kind of pressure.”

Many young people who move overseas describe it as a challenging time where they learn the most about themselves. Having to fend for yourself for the first time, having to break down communication barriers, and simply spending time away from established support networks is an immense challenge, and one that many describe as fundamental to their journey to adulthood.

To go through that journey not only as any young person, but as Alex Chidiac, with all of the weight of pressure and expectation from the footballing public that she carried on her shoulders from such a young age – couldn't have been easy.

“There was still expectation – people were like, where has she been, what’s going on?” Chidiac explained.

“I got injured in the process, COVID hit, there was so much happening – and I was also growing up!

“There was one side that was the football side and the next was just the life stuff that was happening to me as well.

“I think because of all of that happening at such a young age, I didn’t know how to cope with it.

“Now I’m in a good space. After a lot of lows - I think it just went low after low after low after low, I’m starting to find my way back a bit.”

During her low times, she found solace and inspiration from her teammates. Elite athletes are one of the few people in the world who understand the pressure of expectation from a young age. Her CommBank Matildas' teammates were some of the few people that could fully empathise with the full weight of her challenges during that time.

“It’s hard having that expectation from a young age, I’m not going to lie,” she said.

“It doesn’t happen to everyone but I think a lot of the girls here understand what it’s like too. You have the spotlight on you and it’s so focused and honed in.

“You’re watching every move, and then you’ll have one off game and you’ll just get battered for it. Or you disappear for a bit and it’s mentally hard to cope with.”

In particular, she cites Aivi Luik as an inspiration for how she wants to live her life.

“I kind of look up to Aivi in that sense where she’s gone to so many different countries and has still been an absolute boss at the age of 37!” she laughed.

“I met her at the age of 16 and she told me about all the countries that she’d already been to and I was like, I want to do that!

“You can see how kind and generous she is. That’s the kind of person that I want to be too.”

Even throughout the discussion on her greatest challenges, Chidiac remained smiling. It is one of the things that makes her an instant fan favourite everywhere that she plays – there is a genuine warmth when she speaks, a characteristic that has been borne out of her life experiences and a philosophy of kindness.

“I think from experiencing situations growing up where people haven’t necessarily shown kindness to me, I know what it’s like to be in that situation,” she said.

“You have two options when you’re in that scenario – be a bit of a b**** back, or you can kill it with kindness. Then, you can show that to the next generation.

“I mean, what Aivi did for me… has been so valuable on my journey, to know that you can do something so different - radical in a sense – and go to all these different places… it’s not been smooth sailing for her either. It gives me hope, in a sense, that what she’s learnt in her career outweighs all of those shiny accolades in the end.”

In 2019, Chidiac and Luik became the second and third Australians to join the Common Goal charity initiative. Common Goal was founded by Spanish superstar Juan Mata. Footballers who sign up donate a percentage of their salary to charity projects across the world.

It is Chidiac’s work with Common Goal that defines her as much as anything that she has achieved on the pitch.

“Around that time where I did get dropped from the World Cup, I needed a community to lean on – and football is a massive community. That’s where Common Goal came in,” she explained.

“Knowing that 1% of my salary was helping this organisation all the way in Kenya – it meant a lot to me, I was holding onto that as a form of connection. Any little act that I did was received massively over there.

“I felt like, I don’t need to be in the national team to be able to raise my voice up and take a stand and fight for what I’m passionate about. That doesn’t have to go hand in hand. I’m still a professional footballer, it doesn’t matter what level that you’re at, but if you have that platform and you speak up I think it makes such a huge difference.

“I feel like that helped me come back to where I am now, and it helped me reconnect with the reason that I play football.”

2021 saw her return to the A-League Women after a brief stint in Japan with JEF United. It was a successful season, taking home the Championship with Melbourne Victory. After a stint in the NWSL this year with Racing Louisville, she finds herself back in Victory’s navy blue in 2022/23.

So now, as we approach the start of 2023 – why does Alex Chidiac play football?

“We’re bringing it back to the fun side of things,” she grinned.

“I’m just grateful that I’m here and I get the opportunity to be in and around this environment again -  and if I’m not one day again then that’s okay, I can still play football wherever I am.

“If it’s in the street, in the backyard doing whatever, just kicking the ball around with my friends, I think the reason I play is because I love it.

“It’s not necessarily for all these accolades – whereas I think when I was younger it was more like ‘oh, I want to win trophies.’ It’s definitely not so much that anymore.”

“Of course it’s important – winning with Victory last season, that meant a lot to me, for many reasons. I think I cried as soon as the final whistle went! But it’s not so much for that now, I think it’s more-so the connections I’m making through football, the places that it’s taking me, and all the friends that I have.”

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for the former teenage prodigy, but one in which she emerges as one of the CommBank Matildas stand-out creative weapons heading into a World Cup year.

She wanted to emphasise a strong message to fans – it doesn’t matter what you’re going through, you’re not alone.

“I know I’m not the only one that feels sometimes like an outcast in certain teams and certain situations, in places that I’ve been,” she said. “I mean, I dropped out of school because I just didn’t feel like I fit in, and it was too much for me.”

“For other people out there – you’re not alone. There’s another path you can take, there are really kind people out there that want to help you, you just have to take some risks and be pretty vulnerable sometimes, and it hurts, but it’s worth it in the end.”

At the end of her conversation, she was asked again what three words she thinks describes Alex Chidiac.

“I’m going to still say edgy,” she laughed.

“I’ll go, kind. And then… I don’t know, how would you describe me?”

“Generous. I’ll take that. That’s a nice way to finish.”