The Darwin Norzone Premier League is a cultural melting pot with 29 different nationalities on display in the Northern Territory’s top tier competition.
The Darwin Norzone Premier League boasted an incredible 29 different nationalities in their ranks when the season began in March.
A feature article by sportswriter Grey Morris has brought to light all the nations on show in the territory’s top flight football competition.
From the likes of Estonian target man Priit Proos featuring for Mindil Aces to Albania’s Endri Prifti turning out for Port Darwin.
Football NT’s chief executive Bruce Stalder described the influx of international players to NT News as “an absolute united nations”.
The NT Premier League was forced into a 12 week break when the COVID-19 pandemic hit which took a toll on the amount of nationalities featuring in the league, with 18 still on show when it resumed.
Estonia’s Proos is a prime example of the international talent on offer in the competition with the striker having decided to extend his stay in the Territory after falling in love with the lifestyle.
“I ended up liking it too much and stayed,” Proos told NT News. “Everything up here, the weather and the people are great.
“I’ve played the game of football for 15 or 16 years and the style here is similar to back home where it is a hard tackling game and very physical.”
Albania’s Prifti arrived in Australia from Italy where he had been living for the last 20 years.
“I wanted to try something different after living in Melbourne and looked at Darwin on the map and thought I would try it,” he told NT News.
“It’s perfect weather here and the game is very quick, the way I like it.”
This was not the first time that the competition has grabbed national headlines after they became the first football league across Australia to return after the COVID-19 hiatus when Mindil Aces faced off against Hellenic Athletic at the beginning of June.
