Image: Ashley Perez

Former River Plate midfielder Gavin de Niese has joined childhood club Springvale White Eagles after a frustrating six months at South Melbourne.

The dynamic midfielder spent some time in the juniors of the Keysborough-based outfit over a decade ago before joining the South Eastern Piranhas – an affiliate club of Argentine giants River Plate.

After a few years in the youth set-up at the Dandenong North-based side, de Niese moved to Argentina at the start of the decade and spent several years at the academy of Los Millonarios.

He was part of an Australian contingent in the Latin American country that time which also included former Piranhas teammates Kris Kioussis and Rashid Mahazi.

However, a spate of injuries in his final few years in Buenos Aires saw his first-team opportunities extinguished, with the youngster trialling his luck in Europe before returning home.

He spent time with Melbourne City in late 2015 and was expected to join the ambitious A-League side only for bad luck to strike again as he was ruled out for a lengthy period of time by tearing his ACL.

After a gruelling rehabilitation process, he trialled with South ahead of this season and joined Chris Taylor’s side after several impressive performances in pre-season friendlies.

However, his first-team role once the league season began was minimal, making two league appearances for the defending NPL Champions before departing Lakeside Stadium last week.

He will no doubt be looking to revive his career at White Eagles Stadium after several disappointing years where his progress and development has been stalled by injury heartache.

De Niese is expected to form part of a formidable midfield trio at Springvale which includes former South man Cody Martindale and Bosnian international Nebojsa Pejic with the likes of Dejan Erakovic, Milan Jovanovic and Dimitar Mitkov highlighting the club’s strength in depth in that department.

With a senior coaching announcement imminent, de Niese joins former Perth Glory striker Jerry Karpeh as the White Eagles’ mid-season signings for a club positioned fifth on the NPL2 East standings.