Where are you originally from?
I’m originally from Adelaide. I grew up in Adelaide and left home and went to the Institute of Sport for about eight months in Canberra and then from there went directly overseas.

What was it like growing up down in Adelaide?
Yeah, it was good. I come from a big family - one brother and three sisters. My brother's three years older than me, so there was a lot of playing sport in the backyard. Not only football, it was cricket, tennis, whatever we could do. We had a pool table and just played every sport under the sun, table tennis, whatever we could think of.

Is your brother older or younger?
Three years older, yeah, and he also played football, played for Adelaide United, was their captain in the inaugural season of the A League and he also played last year for Wellington Phoenix in the A League. He just retired last season.

When did you notice that it went from you being the brother of Ross Aloisi to Ross Aloisi being the brother of yourself?
Yeah, that's funny because I was always the brother of Ross Aloisi because he’s older and plus he used to play in the national teams before me and then he was in the Olympic side and then in the national team he debuted before me. I think it was when I started regularly playing in the national team that I started being John Aloisi not Ross Aloisi's brother.

What are your fondest memories of growing up?
Doing stuff with my brother and also my three sisters and the family. We were really family orientated, you know, parties with cousins and aunties and uncles. I missed the Aussie barbecues when I was over in Europe because you don't have the barbecues over there. Well, you do have them but the weather's pretty shit.

Now that you've come to Sydney whereabouts are you living?
I’m living in Woollahra, renting at the moment, looking to buy, you know, and I really enjoy the eastern suburbs so hopefully I'll buy something around here.

What in particular do you love about the eastern suburbs?
Everything, you've got everything here, you know. You've got great beaches, great cafes, restaurants, bars, pubs, shops, you know, and whatever else. You don't need to leave the eastern suburbs. You've got everything and plus for me the stadium's here in the eastern suburbs, which is good.

Convenient. And do you have a favourite local beach?
Well at the moment, I've arrived here and the weather hasn't been the best. It's still nice weather but not nice enough to go to the beach. We have been doing recovery sessions at Bondi Beach and I enjoy going down there. It's good for the team.

Can you surf?
No, I can't surf. I was too scared of the sharks in Adelaide.

So what do you get up to in your spare time?
Well at the moment I don't get up to too much because I've got three young girls that keep me pretty busy. I usually do stuff with them. We like going to Centennial Park; it's a great place to go with the kids. They also play tennis and go to swimming lessons, so I’m usually busy doing stuff with them.

Did you always want to play football professionally or did you have some other obscure goal in life?
No, I was quite lucky because football’s what I always wanted to do, that was my dream and I ended up playing as a professional at the age of 17 and since then I've done nothing else. So no, I didn't have anything else on my mind and I’m a bit lucky that I've been able to do this for so many years.

You're carrying an injury at the moment, have you had many injuries throughout your career? What's the worst injury you've had?
Yeah, well it's a part of the profession really. You always have injuries and I did have an injury back in 2000 that affected me for a while. It was a hamstring problem that I had down low in my left leg and every time I'd come back it would end up going again. I was virtually out for three quarters of the season because I couldn't get it right. There's never a good time to be injured but probably before the season starts is the best time. Hopefully I'll only miss out on this first game this season and be back for the others.

You mentioned earlier that you missed the Aussie barbecues when you were overseas; how many years did you have playing over in the European leagues?
I was over in Europe for 15 years. I was in Belgium, Italy, England and Spain and I enjoyed it, but it's not Australia.