In a season of emergence for young Australian strikers, Melbourne City academy gun Max Caputo appears primed to become the next player to break through after recovering from an “horrendous” pre-season leg break.
The 19-year-old scored his first two goals of the season in a 2-0 win over Macarthur Bulls on Friday night, ending a 360-day scoring drought in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
Having debuted in the Isuzu UTE A-League for City at the age of 15, Caputo has long been touted as a star of the future and looks set to unleash his potential in the latter rounds of the regular season, having returned from injury off the back of a rigorous rehabilitation regime.
One of the stories of the 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League campaign to date has been the impressive form of several young Australian strikers; Western United’s Noah Botic (23) leads the league’s Golden Boot race with 10 goals to date, while Adelaide United signing Archie Goodwin (20), Sydney FC forward Adrian Segecic (20) and Western Sydney Wanderers striker Nicolas MIlanovic (23) all trailing closely behind with eight goals apiece.
After Caputo’s clinical brace in Friday’s win over Macarthur, City head coach Aurelio Vidmar marvelled at the young striker’s dedication to gym work throughout his injury recovery, and tipped big things from the academy gun in the weeks to come.
“Really happy for Max… he had a pretty horrendous injury in the pre-season and he’s worked his butt off to get himself into pretty good shape,” Vidmar said.
“Max had a really bad injury as we know in pre-season and he’s done a heck of a lot of rehab to get himself back into pretty good shape. His first couple of weeks when he came back he was getting a little bit frustrated, because you’re never going to be as sharp and match fit as you are prior to the injury. But he worked his way through it. We said keep patient, keep trusting yourself, keep getting to the near post.
“When I came here last season, we had him playing a little bit on the wing positions but he’s always (been) a classic nine. He uses his body well. In the time he’s been injured he hit the gym even harder, and you can see how he’s physically got so much bigger and stronger.
“As you know, last year we went through that moment where Jamie was struggling in front of goal, he was doing so well in training and we threw him in, and he did very well. We were going into this season with Max as our starting nine; unfortunately, he got injured and that set us back, so as I said, he’s done a great job to get himself back to good condition.
“And he’s young, he’s keen, he’s enthusiastic, he works hard, he doesn’t shirk absolutely anything. He’s always in the gym, always doing extra work.
“I’d like to think he can finish off the season really, really strong and prepare himself for a really big year next year.”
Vidmar was then asked about the likes of Botic and Goodwin impressing as regular starters for their respective Isuzu UTE A-League sides this season, and whether Caputo could replicate the red-hot goalscoring form of his fellow young Australian strikers in the coming weeks.
“Noah is a classic example,” Vidmar said.
“He was starting at the beginning of the season, then he got injured and it took him a little bit of time to get back and all of a sudden he’s banging in the goals, and you get confidence and it just snowballs. Hopefully that can work in Maxy’s favour as well.”
