Dean Bouzanis: ‘To be successful at Sutton means a lot to me and my family’

The last time Dean Bouzanis went to Wembley it was to watch his partner, Steph Catley, play for Arsenal in the Women’s FA Cup final. Catley was on the losing team that day but Bouzanis is hoping to register a happier memory on Sunday when he and his Sutton United teammates take on Rotherham in the Papa Johns Trophy final, in their first season after promotion from the National League.

It will be Sutton’s first trip to Wembley since an FA Trophy final defeat by Bishop’s Stortford in 1981 and Bouzanis’s maiden visit as a player. “It is a massive achievement, getting promoted, really pushing on and having a chance of going up from League Two this year, and then getting this fantastic day out,” he says.

For Bouzanis, the penalty shootout hero in the last round at Wigan – he saved two spot-kicks and scored another – the game will prove a landmark occasion in a career that started at Liverpool as a 16-year-old.

Bouzanis was still a schoolboy in Sydney when Rafael Benítez declared him “the best goalkeeper in the world for his age” and although he left Anfield without a first-team appearance to his name, the four-year spell carries fond memories, including playing in an FA Youth Cup final, shadowing Pepe Reina and repelling shots by Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso – “Everything he did you were just in awe of” – at training.

“I remember getting moved up to the first team and getting my first-team squad number and seeing that up on the wall,” he says. “Little things like that I’ll never forget. At the start it is very nerve-racking and a bit of a dive into the deep end. But at the same time you’re a professional and have to put that to one side to try and make a career for yourself, because you’re still a young boy. Before you know