Australian defender Luke Wilkshire has said he is enjoying life at Dynamo Moscow and would be happy to play out the rest of his career in Russia.
"I would like to stay here with Dynamo until the end of my career if I can," the 32-year-old international told Soviet Sport daily.
"I have spent plenty of time here and I'm proud to be a part of this club. All of the club's personnel feel like family to me."
Wilkshire, who played previously with Middlesbrough and Bristol City in England and Dutch outfit Twente before joining Dynamo in 2008, said he enjoyed the challenge of being the first Australian to play in the Russian top tier.
"I came to Russia not for the money like many of the foreign players are doing now," he said. "It was a new challenge for me and I was very interested to try my skills in a completely new league, to become the first Australian here," he said.
"I have fallen in love with the country. I really enjoy every minute here in Russia. I'm the first Australian here but I hope I'm not the last one. Maybe some other young Australian players will come here following my example."
Wilkshire, who has played 79 matches and scored eight goals for his country, said he was looking forward to the 2014 World Cup.
"I think we (Australia) are in the most difficult group of the upcoming World Cup as we're teamed up with world champions Spain, Netherlands and Chile," he said.
"But this is the World Cup and the main idea of this event is to play against the world's strongest teams, to understand what you're worth of."
"Everybody expects us to lose all of the group matches and our goal is to upset as many opponents as possible. I believe we're capable of doing that."
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