The long road to being named Asian Player of the Year for Sasa Ognenovski began on a freezing cold morning on a building site in Melbourne less than five years ago.
The Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma defender flies to Abu Dhabi this week for the Fifa World Club Cup starts and a possible meeting with European champions Inter Milan.
Before Seongnam's first match on Saturday, Ognenovski can reflect on a hectic yet magical couple of weeks during which he captained Seongnam to victory in the AFC Champions League final in Tokyo, earned his first Australia cap in Cairo, before claiming Asian soccer's biggest individual prize in Kuala Lumpur.
But it could so easily have been different for the giant 31-year-old defender. As recently as 2006, he was rising every day at dawn to earn a living as a carpenter while playing part-time in the humble Victorian state Premier League.
The A-League revolution was under way, but Ognenovski had not been picked up by any club in the fledgling championship's first season. 'I was pretty close to giving the game up altogether,' Ognenovski said. 'A few mates were about to go and play Australian Rules football for a local team and I was thinking of pulling up stumps to play a different sport and hit a few people.'
Ognenovski is joking but there is just a hint of truth. At an imposing 1.95 metres, he has earned his nickname of 'the Ogre' for good reason.