Geelong midfielder Lelo Sejean will play soccer in Paraguay this year after signing with a club in the country’s second-best league.
The 26-year-old winger will play for Sol del Este, based in the second largest city of the soccer-mad country.
“The game is such a huge part of the culture here,” he said. “It comes first for them, before food.”
Sejean moved to Argentina at age 18 to play for Sportivo Ameliano in 2013, after learning Spanish, and had relished the challenge of playing in South America.
“Being Australian, I’ve always had to think of ways to stand out and convince clubs and agents that I’m worth the risk.”
During the past few years Sejean has split his time between Australia and South America, with year-long stints of relentless training and trials.
“Sometimes I’ve had to go to extreme measures like sending in videos of me doing hundreds of accurate corners, juggling, free kicks into crates and things, just to get their attention.”
Sejean’s coach at Sol Del Este, Victor Pinto, said players with a difference are hard to come by.
Pinto played in the top league in Paraguay alongside national football heroes Salvador Cabanas and Dario Veron.
“I spend a lot of time with my coach,” Sejean said.
“I am also his assistant for the youth teams at Sol Del Este.
“He has a little soccer pitch in his back yard, so sometimes we’ll have small early morning training sessions at his house.”
Sejean aims to eventually make the transfer into first division and then tackle Europe or Asia.
“From First to Fourth Division, there are all of these transfers happening, player movements, and it’s great,” he said.
In 2015, Sejean married his Paraguayan girlfriend, Liza and he teaches English on the side.
On recent visits home last year, Sejean played soccer with the University of Melbourne and Surf Coast teams.
Sejean also represents his state, Alto Parana, in javelin. His athletics coach, Edgar Baumann, has held the South American javelin record since 1995.
“The vice-president of the Paraguayan Athletics Association, who was also my nutritionist at the time, got me the gig with Baumann,” he said.
“He adjusted my cardio training and Edgar trained me, I went from 78-79kg to about 74kg.”
Sejean represented the Under 16 Victorian Futsal Team at the Futsal Nationals, Canberra and was invited to join the Australian Under 16s for a tournament in Spain, but had to turn down the offer at the time due to lack of funding.
He played Australian rules before switching to soccer to play for North Geelong and Sunshine George Cross.
His coach at the time, Victor Cristaldo, was one of the few Australian players to make it in South America after a stint at Paraguayan club Sport Columbia.
