{"id":19146,"date":"2025-09-16T04:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T04:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/19146\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T04:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T04:18:07","slug":"ex-man-united-star-juan-mata-swaps-sydney-for-melbourne-in-australias-a-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/19146\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Man United star Juan Mata swaps Sydney for Melbourne in Australia&#8217;s A-League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Ex-Manchester United and Spain midfielder Juan Mata is on the move again in Australia, joining Melbourne Victory for his second stint in the A-League after leaving Western Sydney.<\/p>\n<p>The 37-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/juan-mata-san-diego-fc-mls-97fa7fd1db90a4077007f86a6bcb4529\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Mata;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Mata<\/a> joined the Victory on a one-season deal, the club announced Tuesday. He had made seven starts in 23 appearances with Western Sydney Wanderers, scoring one goal.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am excited to be coming to Melbourne and to be part of one of the most respected clubs in the league and playing in front of the incredible members and fans,\u201d Mata said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Victory coach Arthur Diles is attempting to go one better after reaching the A-League grand final last year, losing to Melbourne City 1-0 in the championship match.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are incredibly fortunate to add someone of Juan\u2019s experience and character to the squad,\u201d Diles said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Mata\u2019s career before moving to Australia included winning the 2010 World Cup and 2012 Euros with Spain. He won the Copa del Rey at Valencia in 2008 before moving to Chelsea, where he won the Champions League, FA Cup, Europa League and FA Community Shield between 2011 and 2014.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/fifa-players-diploma-mata-wenger-997da9f4a98eb77477a153141a06863e\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Mata;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Mata<\/a> spent nine years at Man United, where he won the Europa League, FA Cup, League Cup and Community Shield, scoring 51 goals in 285 appearances.<\/p>\n<p>He then had short stints at Galatasaray and Vissel Kobe, winning the Super Lig in Turkey and J1 League respectively before joining the Wanderers last September.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP soccer: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Ex-Manchester United and Spain midfielder Juan Mata is on the move again in Australia,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[18335,972,4027,18333,18331,85,46,9826,18332,18336,18330,18328,105,16254,18334,18329],"class_list":{"0":"post-19146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-arthur-diles","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-chelsea","11":"tag-europa-league","12":"tag-ex-manchester-united","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-juan-mata","16":"tag-league-cup","17":"tag-man-united","18":"tag-melbourne","19":"tag-melbourne-victory","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-valencia","22":"tag-western-sydney","23":"tag-western-sydney-wanderers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}