Julio Matis

Julio Matis began life as a young man in the shade of the incredible partnership of Bentley and Lazerevski at the Pennies. Once the great partnership was broken up, however, successive strike partnerships failed to light up the Iota 'Big Eye' Arena and Penningworth United slowly slipped down the rankings.

While the Pennies were sliding down the domestic ranks, the Starblaydia Under-21s were climbing the international ranks as a Matis and Del Blanco front-two took Starblaydia's youth to a third-placed finish at Under-21 World Cup 7.

Eventually Penningworth United slipped out of Liga Starblaydia and into Liga Omega, despite the best efforts of an aging Matis and his Britannican strike partner Dave Wilkey. By this time, however, David Bentley had left the assistant Manager job of Nova Britannicus and moved to Nedalia to coach the Starblaydi-owned team Honsfield Athletic. Bentley needed a striker, and Matis came to round off his career in the little-known nation.

Not little-known for long, however. As the Nedalia Premier League official press releases put it:

"The 33 year old Honsfield Athletic striker lit up the Premier League, finishing with such deadly accuracy that teams would almost always throw two defenders on him everytime he got into the box. That did not stop him, however, from netting in 31 goals in the 36 appearances he made for the team, enough for him to win the Golden Boot. He also managed to dish out 6 assists, and his average rating of 7.82 was the best given to any player."

Julio was certainly enjoying his Indian Summer in Nedalia. On the back of this great performace he was selected as a subsitute in Starblaydia's AOCAF8 Title-Defence. Having started in AOCAF5 and 6, while only selected as a reserve player in AOCAF7, it was thought he was on his way out. His performances for the Sharks in the NPL changed all that and he made three appearances in AOCAF8 as substitute, scoring twice. He found the winning goal in a 3-2 victory over Cockbill Street in the Quarter-Final. He also, more crucially, scored the goal that pulled Starblaydia's title defence back on track, the an equaliser to level at 2-2 and put the Final match against Vilita into Extra time, which Starblaydia subsequently won on penalties.

His record of having most goals scored in a season (31) lasted till Year Five, before it was finally broken by Jimmy Kelly, who managed to score 33.

Statistics

Nedalia Premier League:

TEAM                  SEASON         APPS    GOALS    ASSISTS    MotM    RATING     LEAGUE POS.
Honsfield Athletic    Year One        36      31          6        12      7.82      3rd 
Honsfield Athletic    Year Two        33      16          6         3      7.44      2nd
Honsfield Athletic    Year Three      21       8          1         2      7.15      6th
Honsfield Athletic    Year Four       14       3          0         0      7.06      3rd
                       TOTAL         104      58         13        17      7.37

+ - Denotes Premier League record.