Dylan Leonard has taken the Isuzu UTE A-League by storm amid his meteoric rise at Western United. The teenage sensation speaks to aleagues.com.au about his journey and a dream that is fuelling his career.
Sat on a table overlooking Western United’s Ironbark Fields, there is one thing clearly noticeable as Dylan Leonard takes his seat after training.
The 17-year-old centre-back is much taller than people realise. There has been talk about the teenage sensation’s height since bursting onto the scene this season but it is all a myth – one that has deterred some overseas suitors previously.
Dylan Leonard has taken the Isuzu UTE A-League by storm amid his meteoric rise at Western United. The teenage sensation speaks to aleagues.com.au about his journey and a dream that is fuelling his career.
Sat on a table overlooking Western United’s Ironbark Fields, there is one thing clearly noticeable as Dylan Leonard takes his seat after training.
The 17-year-old centre-back is much taller than people realise. There has been talk about the teenage sensation’s height since bursting onto the scene this season but it is all a myth – one that has deterred some overseas suitors previously.
“When you search me up, my birthday is wrong, and my height was wrong. So my height had me at like 5’10, 5’11 when really I’m just under 6’2. They fixed it up,” Leonard told aleagues.com.au from Western United’s Tarneit base.
“There’s certain clubs around Germany and stuff that don’t sign centre-backs under 184 or 185cm and I’m 187 so I don’t know how my age is wrong and I think my height must have been from two to three years ago. I don’t know where that came from.”
It has been an extraordinary rookie season for Leonard, one that has also created history and established himself as one of the most exciting young talents in Australian football.
The Port Melbourne Sharks junior is Western United’s youngest ever debutant and goalscorer in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
There was a sliding doors moment that changed the course of the season, and potentially the career, of Leonard after veteran James Donachie suffered a calf injury ahead of Round 2 in October.
Leonard has not looked back since.
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“I’ve been very, very grateful for the opportunity and for the boys, they’ve all helped me so much,” the youngster reflected. “They’ve given me confidence when I make mistakes, and really helped me just to play the way I play. I think it was timed well.
“It’s a bit lucky with certain injuries. That first game of the season, I was in the squad. Second game I was starting. But even before that, in pre-season, I had exposure… we played Melbourne City, and I played most of that game against the likes of (Marco) Tilio and (Andrew) Nabbout. I guess it’s more just the boys around me.”
“I thought if I was training well and doing all the right things, and I got my opportunity I would take it. I didn’t think my opportunity was going to be second game the season.”
It has been a rapid rise for Leonard.
The defender had previously spent a year with Melbourne City as a 12-year-old but joined Western United at the start of 2024 after leaving boyhood club Port Melbourne on the back of his senior debut for the NPLM VIC outfit, along with his older brother Mark for the Green and Black academy.
He initially played NPL football – VPL1 in Victoria’s second tier – before signing a scholarship contract in June. Four months later, he debuted against Wellington Phoenix as a substitute in Round 1.
Leonard has gone on to play 24 matches, scoring once for John Aloisi’s high flyers.
“I was probably more likely to join City because I’d been there for a year when I was younger. It’s a good setup,” he said. “Then (academy director Anthony) Frost and (head coach at the time) Diogo (Ferreira) were very keen for us to come down and kind of train and try it out.
“After the first session, I knew this was a different level, like with the coaching, the standards, the professionalism, that this was going to be the right place to go.”
The academy graduate has flourished in that environment. He has not looked overawed at A-Leagues level. He is just 24 appearances into a fledgling professional career but he is only getting better.
A true modern-day centre-back with composed ball-playing and physical strength, Leonard’s seamless transition to the Isuzu UTE A-League stems from a decision made a couple of years ago.
Leonard spent a year playing for City’s Under-14 team as a 12-year-old, alongside the likes of academy graduates Lawrence Wong, Lachie Charles and Peter Antoniou.
But Leonard opted to return to Port Melbourne after one season. That experience and exposure shaped the talented defender, who actually spent time as a midfielder with the Sharks before moving go centre-back permanently.
“I felt the setup I had at Port was really good. I had Adam Piddick, an unbelievable coach, I had him for years,” he recalled. “I felt as if I would develop more playing against players older than me.
“So at City, we played one year up, which was good, but I trained with kids my age. They were generally smaller, more technical players, and I felt as if I’d be pushed more playing against bigger, more physical players.
“I went back to Port and I was playing… I think I played 75-80 games that year, because I would just play U15s, U16s, U17s, U18s. I was playing four games most weeks. I was coming into some games and as I’m getting subbed on, I’m cramping already, and I’m sore but I think that kind of experience of playing that many minutes of football was, was really good.”
Leonard continued: “I went from one year of playing U16s and U18s at Port, the next year I started every game for the 21s and I was on the bench for the first team, NPL1 seniors.
“That was my first time getting exposed to men’s football, where it’s different. They’re not as nice about stuff. They let you know when you do something. That was a very strong, experienced team at Port, there weren’t many young boys in it. There was an older team.
“That was probably the biggest step up I’ve had in terms of different environment. So when I came from that environment to Western I knew what men’s football was like.”
Watching Leonard play, it is easy to forget he is still only 17, which also means he does not have his driver’s license.
“Matthew Sutton lives in Port Melbourne as well. So he comes past my house every morning, takes me to training,” Leonard revealed. “Then on the way back, he’ll drop me off every session, gameday too. (It) means my parents don’t have to get here two hours early.”
This is also a player who only concluded his schooling this year. Juggling full-time football and education had become a nightmare.
“I switched to unscored because I was coming home from training exhausted,” he said.
That decision has freed up Leonard and allowed him to focus on his ultimate dream – one day playing for Scottish giants Celtic.
Leonard – who attended a recent UEFA Champions League fixture against Atletico Madrid in front of “the best fans in the world” – has grown up in a Celtic-mad family, with both of his parents born in Scotland.
“It’s everything,” he said. “It’s probably part of the reason I started playing and have worked so hard in my football career so far, is watching games with my family, going over with my cousins, watching Celtic play.
In fact, he has modelled his game on Celtic legend Paul McStay and ex-Bhoys defender Kristoffer Ajer.
“They were players (I modelled my game on) genuinely based off what my dad had told me,” he said.
“I watch a lot of Celtic certain players like Kristoffer Ajer when he was at Celtic and the way he used to drive in. That’s something I took out of his game, and I wanted to implement that into my own game, like being a centre-back, that when team step back, can step in and can play forward, can change the game.
“He used to talk a lot about Paul McStay as well. He would play forward rather than keeping the ball and playing safe, certain players can change games by their ability to play forward. So that was something, even as a centre-back, I’ve tried to put into my own game.”
It is all part of his ultimate goal of playing for Celtic.
“That’s probably one thing I want to achieve in football is play for Celtic,” said Leonard.
