Maceo Rigters smiles mischievously as he teaches ‘paper, scissors, rock’ to fellow footballer Adama Traore.

“No Adama, scissors beats rock, you must pick up the balls,” Maceo fibs, his wide, cheeky smile giving the game away.

“You’re truly evil,” Mossy yells from the sidelines and is rewarded with Maceo’s deep chuckle and endearing grin.

Having played football all around the world and suffered, more than many, the times of uncertainty native to professional sport, the adventurous career of Maceo Rigters has left a legacy of interesting stories behind his roughly playful demeanour.

With parents who did not partake in the beautiful game the Dutch striker’s passion for the code was ignited on the streets of Amsterdam, where neighbourhood children turned football into magic.

Any spare space among the city streets was quickly filled by young footballers honing their talents and fine-tuning their skills. It was here that Maceo discovered how his love for the game could also become his livelihood.

After a grooming in Amsterdam’s renowned Ajax youth program Maceo’s break into senior professional football came like a bolt from the blue.

Maceo was recruited by coach Foppe de Haan who was desperate for a striker after his Heerenveen side lost two players to injury.

“I had to play straight away and I didn’t even know all the people and how they played,” said Rigters.

“I knew their names of course, because I’d watched them, but I’d never trained with them.”

After his professional debut with Heerenveen Maceo returned to the second division for just four months, a strategy to build his profile, score more goals and get himself known.

However, he was soon back in the top competition and in 2005 began playing for NAC Breda, a club where tempers seemed to flare easily and passions hovered around boiling point both on and off the football field.

Although Maceo could not play his preferred position of striker at NAC, he made a decent dent on the left wing and enjoyed the fluctuating dynamics of the political club.

“I didn’t play striker, I played on the left, sometimes we had troubles at the club because it is a club where everybody is a bit crazy and under pressure,” he said.

“We had a lot of fights at Breda -I think it’s still like that- there’s always something happening, but that makes the club beautiful; I was happy to be there, it was exciting.”

It seems everything was ablaze for Maceo in 2005 as after scoring the contract with NAC Breda he was given the opportunity to play for the Netherlands U21 side.

Having made a good impression during his time at Heerenveen, it was the same coach who offered the striker his first chance to play internationally, as Netherlands faced Russia.

And Coach Foppe de Haan was spot on with his decision to call up his protégé. Maceo was brought on as a second half substitute against Russia and triumphed to score the third of the Dutch goals, securing a tremendous 3-0 victory for the Netherlands.

“My coach from Heerenveen, who let me start the first game in my senior career, also brought me into the under 21s to play internationally,” smiled Maceo.

“He knew me, he let me play striker and I scored goals. It was a great team and hard not to score goals because you have fans all around you and when you play with better players, you play better yourself– that’s football.”

Following this impressive performance Rigters continued his international career under Haan’s wing as part of the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

And he took the tournament by storm with his knack for scoring and explosive pace the Dutchman was a key player in the Netherlands’ march to the final rounds.

Throughout the tournament Maceo’s name was upon everybody’s lips as he was declared Man of The Match by UEFA when Netherlands faced Portugal, and then again in the semi-finals as he scored the 90th minute equaliser against England.

At the completion of the championship he was named in the team of the tournament and as top goal scorer, with 4 goals, he was awarded the prestigious Golden Boot.

His success brought about a move to the English Premier League where he signed a four-year deal with Lancashire club Blackburn Rovers.

While this appeared to be a move in the right direction, Maceo’s time in England was difficult. The league was highly competitive, the mentality cut-throat and Maceo suffered with persistent injuries.

“The UEFA Championship was a good tournament for me and after that I was transferred to England. It was very hard there, because you have a lot of players in one team; 32 players with everybody fighting for the 11 positions,” said Maceo.

“My hamstring was injured; I did it more than twelve times in two years. It was frustrating because I just wanted to be fit, that was the first thing, and after that I wanted to play of course.

“Every time I would come back to play, with one hamstring recovering, the other one would go.”

After three loan spells away from Blackburn, Rigters decided to look further afield when his Rovers contract drew to a close.

His search initially took him to Wellington Phoenix for trials where he scored a consolation goal in the 5-1 pre-season defeat to Brisbane Roar.

Although he failed to agree personal terms with the New Zealand outfit Maceo’s self-belief did not waver, despite being clubless.

“It was frustrating because you always want to be playing and you want to be part of a team, but you just have to keep strong and believe in yourself because if you know you’re a good player, you don’t need to worry too much.”

After being convinced to give ‘down-under’ a chance, Maceo and Gold Coast United hit it off famously, the striker gelling with the team and fellow Dutch players with natural ease.

Although the league in Australian is still young, Maceo is hopeful about the future of the Hyundai A-League and is happy to be part of it.

“You see it [the Hyundai A-League] growing every year. In Holland now, because there’s a lot of Dutch players here, it’s in the news and they’re talking about it,” explains Maceo.

“It’s getting bigger, and because there are bigger names here now the Australian league is recognised in Europe as well. It’s growing and that’s what we need to keep working on.”