BREAKOUT STARS, RISING STARS OF ALW 2025-26 REVEALED <\/a><\/p>\nYounis joined the Western Sydney Wanderers Academy \u2014 training with the boys \u2014 when she was 12. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really good experience, I feel like going through that pathway helped me grow as a player and as an individual, the amazing coaching staff guided me all the way through,\u201d Younis said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to wear the badge and something I don\u2019t take lightly. I\u2019m very grateful to be staying in the red and black and am excited to see how this season goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Younis made her ALW debut in October 2023 \u2013 she was 14 years and 361 days old \u2013 setting a new record, at the time, for the youngest player to play in the league.<\/p>\n
In February she became the youngest player in ALW history to reach 50 games. <\/p>\n
At the end of season club awards Younis won both the ALW Members\u2019 Player of the Year award and the Player of the Year award. <\/p>\n
While Wanderers struggled this season with just five wins from 20 games Younis\u2019 continued to grow her highlights reel. <\/p>\n
In March she went viral after executing an insane flick trick to beat a Melbourne Victory defender. <\/p>\n
Younis said it was the hours spent playing in the backyard with her brothers that really fostered her love of football. After executing her flick trick she credited the move to her brother saying she had seen it on one of his highlights from his games. <\/p>\n
The teen said she had gained a lot more confidence this season. She also made the difficult decision to not start Year 12 and just focus on her football. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve started playing with freedom and I hope to take that into the next season as well,\u201d Younis said. <\/p>\n
Wanderers ALW head coach Geoff Abrahams has watched Younis\u2019 whole journey. <\/p>\n
\u201cTalia is someone I\u2019ve personally known since she was kid coming along to watch her brother\u2019s games when I was coaching him, so now to see the player she has become is incredibly special,\u201d Abrahams said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve watched her grow from a talented young footballer into a player that can genuinely dominate games at A-League level. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a proud Western Sydney local who has come through both our Academy pathways and excelled in all environments. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, Talia is the most talented young player in Australia and we\u2019re incredibly proud that she\u2019ll continue her journey with the Wanderers for another season.\u201d<\/p>\n
A regular in the Junior and Young Matildas set-up Younis has big dreams of playing for the Matildas and overseas as well. <\/p>\n
But she knows she has to tick all the boxes first. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ALW is a really good development league,\u201d Younis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy ambitions are to go overseas and this is just a really good stepping stone to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the league is home to many rising stars some very experienced ones like Matildas Tameka Yallop and Michelle Heyman also play in the competition. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Matildas are top players and I feel like it\u2019s a really good opportunity to play against them and see what they\u2019re like because at the end of the day the end goal is to play for the Matildas.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talia Younis is Western Sydney through and through and the 17-year-old football sensation has no plans of trading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[323181,1915,64,63,689,107831,41966,28516,596,84913,323182,323178,2105,53277,175114,673,677,32659,28362,44965,323179,85,670,323177,11348,323184,323183,323180,217537,194619],"class_list":["post-669452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-amazing-coaching-staff","tag-anthony","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-breakout-stars","tag-end-goal","tag-erin-smith","tag-football","tag-football-career","tag-football-sensation","tag-geoff-abrahams","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-league-women","tag-michelle-heyman","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-one-year-extension","tag-rising-star","tag-sam-kerr","tag-season-club-awards","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-wanderers-contract","tag-talented-young","tag-talented-young-footballer","tag-talented-young-player","tag-talia-younis","tag-western-sydney-wanderers-soccer-team-academy","tag-youngest-player"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}