D. Valkanis

Dimitri Valkanis grew up in the Melbourne City academy before moving across the world at the age of eleven to join AEK Athens. He rose through the Greek side's youth ranks, was called up to Greece's U19 side in December 2022, and by the 2024–25 season had been promoted to AEK Athens B, where he made 19 appearances in the Greek second tier and trained regularly with the first team, though a senior debut there never came.

Eligible for both Greece and Australia, Valkanis chose to commit his international future to the Socceroos. He made his debut for the Australia U20 side in November 2024 and scored on that occasion, in a 4–2 win over Kyrgyzstan.

His move to Brisbane Roar in August 2025 arrived as a loan rather than a permanent switch, and the start could hardly have gone worse: sent off early in the second half of his A-League debut against Macarthur FC. He dug in through the rest of the campaign, finishing the loan spell with 23 appearances and three goals, form that earned him the club's Young Player of the Year award for the season. That performance was enough to convince Brisbane Roar to make the move permanent, signing him on a three-year deal from AEK Athens on a free transfer. Now wearing the number 3 shirt, the ambidextrous defender has gone from a red-card debut to a first-choice fixture at the back for the Roar in the space of a single season.