Ramone Close Announced As Football Brisbane Indigenous Ambassador

We are pleased to announce Ramone Close as Indigenous Ambassador for Football Brisbane. Ramone is well known and respected around the Brisbane football community, having played for a number of clubs in the region as well as mentoring younger indigenous players coming through the system. More recently, he has been instrumental in forming the Brisbane Warrigals indigenous team that competed at the last two National Indigenous Football Championships in NSW; winning the inaugural tournament in 2016 and coming runners-up in last years tournament. Ramone is passionate about both his culture and the round ball game and it's that passion he hopes can help pave the way for more indigenous players to get involved in the game. Ramone explains, "I'm a big believer that we can find the next Lionel Messi within the Australian indigenous community, but I also believe the opportunities football can offer worldwide are tenfold on that of the other sporting codes can provide." Ramone played overseas himself in Europe when he was younger and would love to see more indigenous players follow in his footsteps. He said, "Raising awareness and increasing the participation of indigenous players in the game is of great importance to me. Seeing more indigenous players succeed here in Australia or overseas would make me extremely proud." Asked what his feelings were on being appointed indigenous ambassador, he said, "I'm absolutely honoured and quite speechless to be offered this role. It's possibly a first of its kind, perhaps in Australia, for this football code." He added, "Recognition across the country of our culture is a huge thing amongst the indigenous community, so being offered this role by Football Brisbane shows recognition to both myself and to my community in general." He ended by saying, "Recognition of indigenous footballers will hopefully open doors to more young indigenous people taking up the sport." Football Brisbane will be working with Ramone to implement a number of initiatives for indigenous football and the organisation is proud to have Ramone as it's ambassador for this growing area of the game.