HE'S won three A-League titles with Sydney FC, but now Rhyan Grant wants to see the sky blues make their presence felt in Asia.
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The Bathurst District Football graduate and his team-mates will head to Qatar this month to play their four remaining group stage games in the AFC Champions League.
While Sydney FC are an undoubted heavyweight in Australia, their record in the AFC Champions League is something Grant is hungry to improve.
In seven campaigns they have only progressed beyond the group stage once, Sydney FC's best result coming in 2016 when reaching the round of 16. Overall the club has won just seven of its 34 games.
"We've won a lot of trophies but the Champions League we haven't done as well as we would've liked over the years," Grant said.
"If we could get a good run in that, it would put us in good stead to claim all these things that we're claiming as the biggest [Australian] club."
Grant made his debut in the Champions League in 2011 and since then has made 18 appearances in the competition. His highlight was scoring in Sydney FC's round of 16 match against SD Luneng in 2016.
Sydney FC current sits third in its group with a draw and a loss. Grant and his team-mates have tough games to come against reigning Japanese champions Yokohama F. Marinos, Korean champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC and two against Chinese giants Shanghai SIPG.
Grant is hungry for his side to "move forward and really make a step and do well in Asia".
"We see it as a little tournament mode for us where we can go over there, put our best foot forward and give it a red hot crack," he said.
"It's a great competition and the standard is very high in Asia, I suppose you could see that as a little pre-season for the A-League too, will put us in good stead heading into that.
"But in saying that, we are concentrating on doing really well in the champions league and seeing how far we can go."
Sydney's campaign resumes on November 19 against Shanghai, a team they drew twice with in 2019.
