Just a year ago, Ben Gibson was in football limbo. Having left Sydney FC’s academy in search of first team football, he was without a club. Apia Leichhardt soon came knocking. 26 league games and 19 goals later, Ben was signing his first professional contract with the Newcastle Jets, where he has already impressed on the pitch.
“I think Dee (Damir Prodanovic) and Rob (Stanton) came out to a few of my games. I knew they were there for one game for certain and I saw them in the crowd. I don’t know how many they came to exactly, but it kind of just escalated from there.”
Ben’s season at Apia was a great success, finishing 3rd in the NPL NSW Golden Boot tally, just one goal behind two former Jets in Roy O’Donovan and Marko Jesic. He’s continued to tally up the statistics since his arrival at the Jets, scoring in a pre-season friendly against Wellington, whilst also contributing 2 assists in four appearances in the A-League. Whilst it may seem like smooth sailing from an outside perspective, Ben’s transition into professional football has come with its difficulties.
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“The biggest difference I’ve noticed is the intensity, intensity at all times. In the NPL, you can get away with not being present, you can switch off for moments here and there and it doesn’t really affect your team’s performance. But when you switch off here, it’s a whole different story.”
“It’s definitely been different. I’ve come from two training sessions a week, three maybe depending on when we play and stuff. A few of my team-mates were coming straight off the job site. I mean you can’t really do any sort of similar training sessions between here and there when boys are spending 12-plus hours at work before training. So it is very different, a lot more demanding, but it’s been enjoyable. It’s something I look forward to and I enjoy showing up every day.”
In just a few months in a professional environment, Ben has significantly developed his game, improving his one-touch play as well as learning how to play in a new system.
“I’ve definitely improved my one-touch play. When you’re playing in the NPL, you can afford to take two, three touches and no one’s really pressing you. Here you don’t get quite as much time on the ball. There’s also a demand to play first time. I’ve also had to adjust to playing with two strikers. At Apia, I was a solo striker, and we had boys who just wanted to get on the ball and then I’d run off them, whereas here it’s a lot different. It’s very structural. We’ve got certain movements that they want us to do.”
During his time in Sydney’s Academy, Ben studied Business Admin at University, as well as working in after-school care to make ends meet. He continued this job into his time at APIA. Despite this, professional football was always the end goal.
“I always picked football first. I know there’s certain boys that I played with last year who play football purely for a second source of income. They’ve got their main job and then they’ve got football. But for me, it was the other way around. Studying whilst playing at Sydney was really hard. We were training three, four times a week in the morning, then I had to go home and do the uni work and whatever you’ve got to do for the rest of the day.”
Whilst at Sydney FC, Ben played with a number of players who would go on to play in the A-League as well as abroad. This includes current team-mates Nathan Grimaldi and Clayton Taylor.
“We had an unbelievable team at Sydney FC. I played with Grimmers (Nathan Grimaldi), Clay (Clayton Taylor), JK (Jaiden Kucharski), (Zac) Sapsford, Oscar Priestman, Jake Girdwood-Reich, as well. I also played with Zane Schreiber and Aaron Gurd.”
Despite the promising start to his professional career, Ben has kept working hard at training, and continues to aim for as many minutes on the pitch as possible.
“I just want to get as many minutes as possible. I’m fortunate that this is a young team. It’s a team where I can come in and I’m not the youngest kid. I just want to try and get as many minutes as possible.”
