Ivan Soldo

Ivan Soldo (born 14 April 1996) is a professional Australian rules footballer who plays for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

He is the cousin of former Richmond ruck Ivan Maric.

He attended Daramalan College and completed his studies in 2013.

A promising junior basketballer, Soldo represented the ACT in national tournaments at the under-16 and under-18 levels.

To July 2014 he had never played Australian rules football at a club level, only learning to kick in a social context.

After a trial with Richmond in May 2014, he was signed as a category-B rookie in July.

Soldo was introduced to club officials the previous Christmas as a future prospect by cousin and Richmond ruck Ivan Maric.

Soldo played his first Australian rules football match in late July 2014, with the Northern Knights and against the Gippsland Power in Morwell.

As part of the category-B arrangements under which he was signed, Soldo was allowed to train and play with TAC Cup side the Northern Knights before joining Richmond's 2015 pre-season training.

He was officially drafted in December with the club's fifth selection and the 68th selection overall in the 2015 Rookie Draft.

He did not play a match at senior level in his first two years at the club, instead learning his craft with Richmond's reserves side in the VFL.

He played eight games at VFL level in 2015 before playing 15 (and averaging 19.9 hit-outs) in the 2016 season.

Soldo set the AFL record for most hit-outs in a debut game during his first match in 2017.

Soldo was elevated to the Richmond senior list in May 2017, a potential replacement for suspended ruck Toby Nankervis.

He made his AFL debut in Round 7 2017, in a match against the reigning premier Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium He recorded nine disposals and three marks in the match, along with setting a league record for debutants with 42 hitouts.

He was omitted from the senior side the following week but returned in Round 9 to play the GWS Giants in Sydney.

Playing as a back-up ruck to Nankervis, he managed just six hit-outs and five disposals before again being dropped from the team the following week.

After six weeks of playing at reserves level Soldo was recalled to the AFL side to play Brisbane in Round 17.

He played as the club's lead ruck, with the more mobile Nankervis moved into the role of centre half forward.

Soldo kicked his first career goal in round 20 against Hawthorn at the MCG.

Following five straight matches at senior level he was again dropped from the side ahead of round 22's match-up with Fremantle.

He did not return to senior football that season, instead closing out his year with the VFL side on their push towards the league's grand final.

However, he became just one of three players at the club not to play in a grand final at either level in 2017, after he was dropped from the reserves side due to a glut of available rucks.

He finished the year having played seven AFL matches in 2017.

Soldo was upgraded to Richmond's senior player list ahead of the 2018 season.

He started that year as he had done the previous three, playing with Richmond's reserves side in the VFL.

In early May assistant coach Xavier Clarke said Soldo was "starting to become a really dominant ruckman" at VFL level after a game in which he recorded 38 hitouts, 10 disposals and five inside 50s.

He was named as an AFL emergency on a league-leading 12 occasions over the first 15 weeks of the season, including in rounds 8 and 9 when the club's leading ruck Toby Nankervis was dealing with a minor wrist injury and considered in some doubt to play.

On both occasions Nankervis was ultimately fit to play however and Soldo reached the mid-point of the season without having played a match at AFL level.

In mid-June he began dealing with an infected toe and later a concussion that when combined would see him miss more than a month of football.

Soldo returned to reserves-level football in mid-July and by early August would earn his first AFL match of the season when Nankervis sustained a corked quad muscle ahead of round 21's match against the.

He recorded a match-high 34 hitouts and earned the praise of senior coach Damien Hardwick

for his performance in that match, but was ultimately omitted from the side upon Nankvervis' return the following week.

In September he played with the club's reserves side in the VFL finals series.

Despite finishing the season as minor premiers, consecutive losses to and would see the VFL side eliminated early in the finals series and bring Soldo's season to an end.

Soldo finished 2018 having played just the one AFL match, along with 16 games at reserves level in the VFL.

Soldo spent the 2018/19 off-season preparing for the possibility of playing AFL football alongside Richmond's lead ruck Toby Nankervis.

This came as a result of a serious injury to midfielder and relief ruck Shaun Grigg, as well as newly introduced league ruck rules that meant even upon a possible return, Grigg would be unlikely to play as ruck support to Nankervis.

In 2019 he became an AFL premiership player with Richmond.

Soldo spent his formative years in the Australian capital city of Canberra.