As vice-captain of the Matildas, Steph Catley is nothing wanting a nationwide treasure –particularly after scoring two objectives through the group stage of the 2023 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup.
All eyes have been on her private life this 12 months too, after she revealed again in January that her boyfriend Dean Bouzanis – additionally a soccer participant – had requested her to marry him.
Catley’s skilled profession started in Melbourne, then performed for a handful of golf equipment within the US Ladies’s soccer league, lastly being signed to Arsenal as a defender in 2020.
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Bouzanis can also be an completed soccer participant, beginning his profession in Europe as a goalkeeper, earlier than returning to Australia in 2014 to play for the Wanderers within the A-League.
The couple first met approach again in 2016, once they had been each taking part in for Melbourne Victory. Three months after probability assembly and a slide into the DMs, they moved abroad collectively.
It is a modern-day love story – let’s dive proper in.
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2016: Steph Catley begins taking part in for Melbourne Metropolis within the W-League; on the identical time, Dean Bouzanis begins taking part in for the Melbourne Metropolis males’s group within the A-League.
Catley and Bouzanis have an opportunity assembly on the coaching pitch. Although they only had fast chat, there was clear chemistry, and as Bouzanis places it, “one factor led to a different”.
Catley revealed later that Bouzanis slid into her DMs on Instagram after she walked previous him at a buying centre and did not discover him waving. “I believe he was simply too shy to say hi there!,” she teased. “In order that’s how Dean and I began speaking, and that is how he acquired me hook, line and sinker.”
January 2017: The couple formally begins courting in January. “We saved it quiet at first, as a result of it is uncommon for 2 folks on the identical membership to begin courting,” he mentioned.
March 2017: Nonetheless, only a few months into attending to know one another, Catley needed to fly again to the US to play a season for Orlando Delight. Many Aussie soccer stars concurrently play in US and Australian leagues, made doable by the other timing of the seasons.
Bouzanis took the leap, and flew to spend his low season with Catley within the US whereas she performed in Orlando.
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“That was solely about three and a half months into our relationship, so it was an enormous transfer on his behalf that early on,” Catley revealed in an interview with The Atlantic. “But when he hadn’t completed that, it most likely would not have labored as a result of I used to be in America for thus lengthy. Initially of a relationship, that is most likely an excessive amount of distance with out realizing somebody that properly.”
Could 2017: Catley shares pictures to Instagram of her and Bouzanis exploring Florida.
2018: The couple grapple with a long-distance relationship whereas Catley performs in Australia for Melbourne, and Bouzanis is on mortgage with a group within the Netherlands. They reunite at Christmas for a festive season at residence.
March 2020: The couple live collectively in Melbourne, using out the COVID lockdowns collectively.
July 2020: Catley is introduced as the most recent participant becoming a member of Arsenal’s Ladies’s group within the UK.
August 2020: An identical announcement is made, this time naming Bouzanis as the brand new goalkeeper for Sutton United, additionally within the UK. Phew. The couple will not be separated.
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“Steph’s deal got here up first,” Bouzanis later defined. Whereas she was finalising her contract, he was coping with the information that the A-League in Australia can be postponed for 2020.
Although Bouzanis had performed for groups in England up to now, it wasn’t straightforward for him to discover a new job and comply with his girlfriend.
“I wasn’t in any respect anticipating him to come back with me,” Catley revealed. “We have at all times had a fairly good understanding in our relationship of creating positive we each get probably the most out of our careers and if which means certainly one of us is taking part in in a unique a part of the world for a sure period of time, then we’re each very understanding about that, so I simply needed him to do what was going to be greatest for his profession.”
However simply as she was inking her contract, a proposal got here up and he took it.
September 2020: Bouzanis gushes about his girlfriend in an interview. “I really feel like she’s not recognised to the extent that another gamers are and that is loopy to me,” he says.
“I see her each day at coaching and she or he’s unbelievable. I knew how good she was however she’s gone to a different degree. She’ll be so embarrassed by me saying that too… she’s so humble.”
January 2021: Catley celebrates the couple’s four-year anniversary, with a candy Instagram submit. “By no means a boring second, do not know what I would do with out you,” she wrote.
Could 2022: Catley indicators one other contract extending her time in Arsenal, so the couple determined to proceed residing in London.
June 2022: The couple get a canine collectively, a golden doodle named Calvin.
July 2022: Bouzanis opens up about their relationship, saying the way it’s particular to have a companion who totally understands what it is wish to be an elite athlete.
“Being a footballer, you wish to play in these massive video games and have these moments and to have the ability to share them collectively – it’s particular.”
“It’s a nice match as a result of we perceive one another and what it takes, whether or not it’s important to go away, transfer golf equipment, you may need to do a little bit of lengthy distance, which we needed to do firstly of our relationship.”
January 2023: Steph and Dean get engaged! He units up an elaborate proposal, with a ‘Marry Me’ sign up lights, purple coronary heart balloons, and their canine Calvin in just a little tuxedo.
July 2023: Catley returns to Australia to play in her third World Cup.
“It is a residence event for us, we’re taking part in in entrance of so many younger ladies, younger boys that may hopefully watch us and aspire to be feminine or male footballers sooner or later in Australia,” she shared.
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