Manchester United's place in the team behind Canberra's A-League Men's team

So if you were looking to build an A-League club from the ground up why wouldn't you tap into that.

Vange Kourentis was part of Manchester's rise to world domination for a decade, but he's also been a little-known part of Canberra's bid for an A-League Men's team.

Michael Caggiano might've been the face of that bid, but there's also been a small team behind the team.

There's a former Socceroo, Danny Moulis, who brought Canberra's history on Australia's national stage to the group.

There's also Caggiano's right-hand man, Bede Gahan, a communications expert from the public service in Aaron Walker and brand manager Alberto Florez.

The Australian Professional Leagues' announcement Canberra and Auckland were their preferred locations for two new teams was off the back of their, and hundreds of other volunteers', hard work.

And they'll keep providing the APL with their expertise wherever they can as the hunt for investors continued.

Kourentis said Canberra had a unique opportunity to start with a blank canvas to ensure the community was firmly part of the roots of the new club.

He not only worked at United, but was involved when a group of former Manchester players' purchased and reinvigorated Salford City, with Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes and David Beckham all co-owners.

Kourentis was impressed with Canberra's "pent-up excitement" for soccer, as well as Caggiano's "passion".

"One thing that left [with] me from my United days with Alex Ferguson was something he told players all the time ... which is 'football has always been about entertaining the crowd'," he said.

"Football was always a working-class game in the UK and 3pm kick-offs on a Saturday were for a reason - the factories stopped working at 1pm, they had time to go home for a quick shower to get to the football to be entertained in what was difficult, manual lives.

"That one-and-a-half hours was all about entertainment and that's never left me - it is about fans at the end of the day.

"Here in Canberra you've got the perfect opportunity to make that fan and community connection right from the start."

Moulis was basically the walking history of the future ALM team before it's even begun.

He played in the Canberra City side that was the ACT's first team in the National Soccer League - as a 16-year-old coached by the legendary Johnny Warren - and went on to play for Australia, was the chairman of the Canberra Cosmos and was on the Football Federation Australia board.

Moulis joined the bid once he'd left the FFA board, with the lawyer helping with strategy and international connections.

He said Canberra was the perfect place for an ALM team, given the capital was Australia's conduit to the world.

And he was after being competitive not only off the pitch, but on it as well.

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"We're not just here to make the numbers. We can do really well in this league," Moulis said.

"Canberra's an attractive place to live. It's an attractive place to work.

"And I'm pretty sure we'll have a fantastic calibre of players - not only coming up through our local leagues, but also coming here from other places to add to the strength and quality of our team."

Florez was recommended to the bid to help with their branding - so what will it be?

"With any sports or football branding it's got to be steeped in history and one of the biggest untold stories is the history of Canberra football - of which the current Canberra United women's team is a big part," he said.

"Canberra was built as a city to unite. They couldn't decide Sydney or Melbourne so they put one in the middle."

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