As far as I am concerned, Australia isn't just a place, it's a state of mind. It's the culmination of a journey I made with my heart and mind even before I made it with a 24-hour plane flight.

That's the reason for Sydney FC, for Sydney, and for Australia. A new life.

Australia stands for a before and an after. Even once I'm no longer here I'll always remember this interlude as a watershed time in my life, and not only in my professional life.

Before this, I was used to being Alessandro Del Piero all the time, on and off the field. I have always deliberately (and I would say proudly) kept my public side separate from my private one: Del Piero the footballer separate from Alessandro, the father, husband, son, brother, friend ...

But in Italy, and in Europe generally, outside the four walls of my home, it's impossible not to be Del Piero.

Mind you, I'm not complaining: the attention, and especially the show of affection I receive from people, make me feel privileged. I never forget that were no one to rejoice at my goals, scoring them would not be worth the trouble.

But I don't deny that at times, and especially since my children were born, I've become more persistent about looking for "normality".

And that is what I've found in Australia. I've rediscovered things I had almost forgot: going to the park with my children (something I did with my father when I was the child), walking around the city, being a tourist where I live, taking time for my family and for myself, and experiencing a new dimension I hadn't known before coming to Sydney.

In my life as a Sydney FC player many of my habits have changed; living my every day life in a country so very different from Italy enriches me.

News_Image_File: Alessandro Del Piero with his son Tobias and wife Sonia Amoruso.

In Australia we are virtually all migrants - some who came early and some who came later.

I've met so many Italians, for example, that some days I feel I'm still in Turin.

Each one of them has their own special story and they all deserve a book like this one.

It's real life. Their love for Italy, even from such a distance, makes me even prouder to be Italian and at the same time makes me appreciate this country, which has succeeded in establishing its own identity partly through the diverse origins of the people who live here. This country is a great example: it has harnessed diversity as an asset without seeing it as an obstacle, and this is the basis of its community life and the cornerstone of a shared value system.

It's something you pick up very quickly, when you go shopping, when you take your children to school, at restaurants and on the training pitch.

News_Image_File: Alessandro Del Piero celebrates scoring for Sydney FC.

It's a lesson I want to carry with me forever, and I'd like my children to do the same.

I think all sportspeople should try to spend a period of their professional lives in Australia, because for anyone in my profession it's a sort of paradise. The welcome I was given was extraordinary.

In every stadium I was applauded, in every city the Australian public showed its appreciation and its eagerness to see me on the field. Lots of people, especially but not only Italian migrants, have thanked me for making this choice.

Actually, I'm the one who is grateful to them for all the emotions they are giving me and for everything I'm learning from this great adventure.