Port Melbourne Sharks have made Canberra Olympic forward Philippe Bernabo-Madrid and Redlands United goalkeeper Brendan White their third and fourth signings of the off-season.
The two ironically faced off against each other in the FFA Cup Round of 16 this year, as Bernabo-Madrid’s Olympic booked progression through to the Quarter Finals.
The 24 year-old Bernabo-Madrid was born in his native Colombia but moved to Canberra aged 15 and was part of the Capital Football Academy before making his senior debut with Canberra FC in 2010.
In that year he was also a contestant on Foxtel’s reality TV Show Football Superstar while also spending time at the Australian Institute of Sport. However a serious knee injury that year forced him to undergo a full knee reconstruction which proved to be unsuccessful, as the youngster underwent another surgery.
Bad luck would strike Bernabo-Madrid once more in 2015 as another knee injury saw him fly to Chile as he went under the knife for a third time in five years as he battled to save his career.
A successful surgery saw him come back in 2016 and make an immediate impression, scoring 15 goals in 19 league games as Frank Cachia’s side culminated their domestic campaign by defeating defending Champions Canberra FC 3-0 in the Capital Football Grand Final.
The triumph was the club’s third Championship in four years with Olympic also winning the league Championship and Federation Cup in a remarkable 2016 where the club managed to grab national headlines by qualifying for the FFA Cup national stages, then make the semi-finals of the knockout competition.
Bernabo-Madrid was the hero as the number nine netted their only goal in a Round of 32 1-0 victory over Surfers Paradise Apollo before playing his part as Olympic overcame Redlands United in the Round of 16 with penalties from goalkeeper Angelo Konstantinou and former South Melbourne forward Robbie Cattanach seeing the men from the nation’s Capital win 2-0.
He then started and played 85 minutes in the 1-0 win over Green Gully in the last eight before also featuring in last week’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of Sydney FC.
Goalkeeper White was also announced as a Port Melbourne player for the upcoming season, having joined from NPL Queensland outfit Redlands United.
The former Queensland gloveman of the year joins ex-Redlands teammate Michael McGowan at JL Murphy Reserve next season after the pair claimed the NPLQ Championship with a 3-2 win over Far North Queensland Heat.
He also spent time in the Brisbane Roar National Youth League set-up as well as featuring in Redlands’ FFA Cup victory over Adelaide United earlier this year.
The pair become manager Dominic Barba’s latest additions to the club since joining from Bulleen late last month, joining former Lions attacker Takanori Nishimoto and the aforementioned McGovern as new signings.