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Mitchell Duke's mid-season move to Western Sydney Wanderers is paying off for both player and club, as his eye-catching A-League goal celebration turns heads.
He seems to have the A-League's most eye-watering goal celebration nailed down, but mid-season Western Sydney Wanderers recruit Mitchell Duke is making the most of a timely move back to Australia.
Duke, who made four Socceroos appearances in 2013, has made a big impact since returning home from Japan.
The western Sydney-born player has scored in three successive games and four in seven, despite only starting three times.
Introduced to the A-League by Graham Arnold at Central Coast, Duke played for four seasons with Shimizu S-Pulse but lost a regular starting spot towards the end of his time there.
"It was not so much the football side of things, it was more the outside of football things that mentally was taking it's toll for me and my wife," Duke said after scoring in Saturday's 3-0 home win over Melbourne City.
"I had football over there but my wife had nothing, so it got enough that I needed a bit of a change.
"This couldn't have come at a better time in my career, I've just turned 28 so this is my peak."
Duke's eye for goal has impressed Wanderers coach Markus Babbel and solved one of his biggest attacking problems.
"He brings energy, he's always positive, always smiling, always laughing, he loves every training," Babbel said.
"I think the biggest thing is he wants to score goals and that's what I said in the past, we don't have many players who can score," Babbel said.
The eighth-placed Wanderers maintain a slight mathematical chance of making the finals after taking 13 points out of 18 since a 5-1 caning by Newcastle.
"After the Newcastle game we just got together and reset goals and targets as a team and individually, since then we've done really well,' Duke said.
Duke got people chattering after he celebrated his well-taken goal against City by doing the splits next to a corner flag
"I do it all the time at training, that's why all the boys kind of egged it on a bit," he said.
