the son of a greek restaurateur, micallef was born in the grangetown area of cardiff and was a welsh schoolboy international as a youngster before joining cardiff city as a trainee, working his way up to the first team, making his debut in december 1978 at the age of seventeen against sheffield united, which was to be his only appearance for the bluebirds that year. eventually he established himself in the team during the 1981–82 season but in september 1983 he moved to newport county as part of a five-man swap deal which saw cardiff players micallef, john lewis and linden jones move to newport in exchange for nigel vaughan and karl elsey.