Croatian Football Vice President impressed with Sydney United’s Youth League




After a hectic few days at the FIFA Congress, the Vice-President of the Croatian Football Federation, Mr Ivan Brlekovic, extended his visit to Australia to spend time with players and officials at Sydney United.
Mr. Ivan Brlekovic spent Saturday morning watching a number of Premier Youth Games at the Sydney United Sports Centre.

Mr Brlekovic commented on the stature of the 14 and 15 year old boys and asked, “What these boys were fed in Sydney to make them so large”.

Mr Brlekovic was impressed with the tempo of the game and the skill level shown by the Sydney United boys.

He commented as much during the post match meeting and wished the boys the best of luck for the remainder of the season.

Mr Brlekovic commented how impressive the facilities at the Sydney United Sports Centre were and how extensive the Junior, Premier Youth and Senior teams playing structure was.

He praised the Board of Directors on their professionalism in managing 40 Football Teams from Under 6's to the Senior Team playing in the TeleChoice Premier League.

Mr Brlekovic was pleased that one of the foundation Croatian clubs of the Diaspora was getting on with developing football players and was more impressed with the fact that 69% of all players registered with Sydney United had Croatian Heritage.

He was amazed that a Croatian Club had also given 32 Socceroos to Australia.

Apart from watching a number of the Premier Youth teams play, Mr Brlekovic met with Sydney United Directors to discuss opportunities to strengthen the relationship with the HNS and offer opportunities for high potential players to consider a career path through Croatia.

Further discussions are planned to consider technology options in tracking the progress of identified players.

The club is considering a program to identify players that could be groomed in conjunction with assistance from the HNS.

shock horror

Have you got a link for this article?

did i need one?

Yeah, you do. Anybody can make shit up. It would be helpful to know who the hell is claiming that.

http://www.soccernsw.com.au/index.php?id=17&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=699&tx_ttnews[backPid]=1&cHash=54d6eed053

This one was from Sydney morning herlad



ON THE sidelines of a suburban Sydney football pitch stands one of the most powerful men in Croatian football. Ivan Brlekovic, vice-president of the Croatian Football Federation, has been lured to Edensor Park, home of Sydney United, with the promise of the freedom to pick out some of Australia's best young talent.

If he likes what he sees, he is told he can take it back to Croatia. Inevitably, he takes a shine to the hugely talented 16-year-old goalkeeper Robert Kolak, who is considered by coaches at the club and the NSW Institute of Sport to have the talent of a young Zeljko Kalac, just another product of the club's impeccable youth system.

Kolak's agent, former NSL defender Buddy Farah, takes up the story, saying yesterday: "The vice-president of the [Croatian] federation came down to the club and they just spotted [Kolak] at a coaching clinic down at Sydney United's ground.

"He liked him, so they actually flew him over there [to Croatia] and he went over initially to just check it out and to open up his eyes to a different country and the way they do things over there. [Croatia] really likes him. They've chased him very hard."

As coach of the Olyroos, Australia's under-23s team, this is Graham Arnold's worst nightmare. Sydney United is where he made his name, but if his old club follows through with a plan to funnel through its most talented players to the Croatian federation, Arnold said it would be a "very sad" day for Australian football.

"I don't agree with it and it's disappointing to hear it," he told the Herald. "A lot of good Australian-Croatian players have come through Sydney United, or Sydney Croatia, and a lot have gone on to represent Australia, and have made the club of Sydney Croatia very proud.

"We've always been threatened with Australian-Croatian players leaving and going to play for Croatia, but a lot of them, at the end of the day, are either Australian or Croatian."

One such player who may be looking to the European nation is Dario Vidosic, who moved to Australia when he was just one year old but is weighing up his options after being overlooked by Arnold to play for the Olyroos in Beijing. Coincidentally, his father, Rado Vidosic, is assistant coach to ex-Socceroos boss Frank Farina at Queensland Roar.

One man who wasn't overlooked by the Olyroos, Matthew Spiranovic, faced a similar decision between the two nations before ultimately picking Australia.

"I suppose it comes to personal choice," Spiranovic said. "I haven't spoken to [Dario Vidosic] about it, but I suppose the fact that there have been players from Australia that have gone to Croatia makes it a little more realistic and possible."

Spiranovic added that while it was normal for clubs to develop relations with other overseas clubs, he was not aware of clubs developing specific relations with overseas federations.

"Obviously, the Croatian-based clubs are going to have the connections overseas to find kids who've got talent and ability, and I can understand that, but if it's the national federation, it's a different issue," he said.

Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley was far from impressed by Sydney United's conduct. "If this is the case, I'd be extremely disappointed that a club that is part of our system is expressly developing players for another country," he said.

"If such a relationship was formalised, we would as a matter of course raise the legalities of it with FIFA and consider any action open to us in respect of the club and the Croatian Football Federation.

"Playing for your country is a privilege. Our talent pathway system is an enormous investment of time, money and resources and I would hate to see the investment we make in talented young players being made to the benefit of other countries.

"I hope that young people of Croatian background see Australia as their only choice, and are not forced into a system that is specifically designed to bypass playing for Australia.

"Imagine if the likes of Mark Viduka, 'Spider' Kalac, Jo Skoko, Tony Popovic and Jason Culina had been diverted from playing for Australia. All of them - and more - have worn the green and gold of the Socceroos with pride and distinction.

"We believe that by continuing to raise the profile and reputation of football in Australia, young people of diverse cultural backgrounds will see playing for the Socceroos as their only choice."

In the case of Kolak, the good news for Buckley and Arnold is that the star talent is ignoring the pleas of Croatian authorities in favour of his boyhood dream to play for the Socceroos.

"The best thing for Robbie is to cement his spot as the No.1 keeper with the Joeys and get as many games as he can with them for experience," Farah said. "Then he wants to come back and win a scholarship with the AIS, where he can develop even further.

"After that, we'd look at options for him locally first of all, hoping that he can come through the system and sign with an A-League club. If not, the overseas options are definitely there. We've already knocked back Dinamo Zagreb and the Croatian federation for now, because his main focus is to represent Australia and, one day, hopefully, play for the Socceroos."

But while Kolak may be strong enough to resist the overtures aimed at him, he is just one of many young Australian players being courted by overseas nations.

While the Croatian authorities are the most active - successfully netting 2006 World Cup trio Josip Simunic, Ante Seric and Joey Didulica - Greece have emerged as equally aggressive poachers of local talent.

Five Australians have played under-age for Greece in the past year, including Liverpool's star junior Dean Bouzanis, who joins Melbourne midfielder Apostolos Giannou in Greece's squad at the under-19 European Championship, which begin on Monday.

Spiranovic added that while it was normal for clubs to develop relations with other overseas clubs, he was not aware of clubs developing specific relations with overseas federations.

Interesting...No name on the article though, simply attributed as a Sydney Utd press release.

But if that's true, the FFA needs to take a good look at possibly implementing a similar rule to what the CBF has implemented to stop our young tallent disappearing overseas too quickly.

Bloody United can't get over the fact they are not in the top league.

You're the one that keeps harping on about the fact Leave them be and implement the same U18's rule that they have in Brazil and see what happens then.

FFA need to crack down on this...back stabbing SydUtd

crack down on what exactly? all they did was give the vice president of hhk a tour of the place, he just happen to see a kid who he liked and invited the kid to croatia, its no diffrent when a scout goes to a game to watch some kids play,

I agree, sounds very innocent to me...maybe we should send aussie reps to scout out any young talents in the uk with any Aussie ties watsoever :roll:

pretty bad example with the UK
Sydney United backstabing?..Their founded and run by Croatian immigrants and Aussies hate them...why wouldnt they help send some kids to Croatia?

I cant think of any other country australia can poach players from, except for the Richard Porat case, but that is only one player.



Well considering the Aust government gave them the grant for the land where there club and ground is at, i consider it pretty bad(same with Hajduk, Marconi, Bonnyrigg White Eagles, etc).

BTW, the reason that Sydney Utd isnt whole embraced by the 'Aussie' football community is because they have a tendency to be exclusively Croat, with the odd exceptions of some very very talented players(even they have it bad; a friend of mine is one at the moment).

Obviously their going to want to be exclusively Croat..

Whereas then you play the "Aussies hate them" card? By the way, isnt that called discrimination?

I'd say calling these Australian born players at Sydney United 'Croats' is discrimination.

The club is an important part of the Croatian community and giving opportunities to young people of Croatian heritage is a top priority. Thats why they are generally 'exclusively Croat'.

Come on, lets not fly of the hinge. What I meant was croat australian.

I dont mean to say that the club throw out their Croatian heritage. Noone has the right to deny ones background, heritage, race, creed, etc. But TBH Sydney Utds player recruitment is far less than open. E.g. if you look at their trialing system, cro heritage is more important than ability(shows on their field; currently paying with their results), whereas a club like Marconi(italian) focuses on talent before race(Senior team didnt do well but their u/20 were great).

Because of this ability to look purely on the ability these players have better chances of excelling and moving on to the next level eg. Elasi, Berger, Carle(via SydOly)

I hope all it is a meet and greet thats all but lets hope whats happened in the past with similar players doent happen again because its a total disgrace and desrepectful to this beautiful country.The ffa are on to this already.

Edited by astonvilla1: 22/9/2008 04:15:34 PM

Oy you.

This is Australia not Croatia.

You don't here Poms going lets make a pom only club.

You are Australian not Croatian and if you don't like that fact get the fuck out.

Selecting a Croatian in preference to anybody else because he is croatian is against the equal opportunities act of 1988.

The thing with Australia is, we're all australian and we've accepted all comers to our country, we let people bring their traditions and community approaches over here and we let them in, the least those people could to is reciprocate. And if you don't like it or don't think of yourself as Australian, you can leave. In fact, I'll pay for your plane ticket.

I would help pay but being an apprentice.....

Edited by guest: 22/9/2008 10:44:50 PM

hang on a sec

where in that did i say im not proud to live in australia or be australian? I'm an Australian who is proud of his Croatian heritage...
all i did was give you a reason why sydney united tend to stick with Croatian people.

Do you acknowledge that is correct though? Do you believe that their exclusivity is right or wrong?

In terms of the nationality topic:
Most people who are of ethnic backgrounds are proud to be Australian and proud to live here but are also proud of their background. It would be wrong not to be proud so I think everyone should get over the "get out of our country" business. Everyones favourite Socceroos Viduka, Skoko etc aren't any different and are just as proud as anyone else to have a Croatian background.

On the Sydney United topic:
Obviusly picking a team based on race is illigal and wrong and I understand that. Being of Croatian origins the club is always going to attract players of Croatian heritage. If a player is good enough, is not Croatian and wants to trial for Sydney United why not give them a go?

Back on topic though, Sydney United may try and send some players to Croatia but lets not forget how many they've given to Australia!

Admitidly some of the best in Cahill and Culina

I dont boubt the nationality topic, as i am australian(and very proud of it) but I too am proud of my Chilean heritage.

I still cant agree with you on the sending of players to Croatia(to benefit their NT). Its just plain wrong that their development is thaks to Australia yet the profit is enjoyed by another country(if its purely for club football then i have no objection...but we both know what its really about).

Finally, how many players have Croatia given Australia(dont mention Australians with croatian decendancy)?

Cahill has Croatian heritage?

dont think so,thought it was somoan,cahill doesnt sounds like a very croat name, names of the top of my head i can think of kalac, popovich and rudan,