Socceroo Josip Skoko giving back to the game he loves in Geelong

Michael Auciello | March 17th, 2011


WHEN it comes to soccer mentors for young Geelong players coming through the ranks, you couldn't get much better than Josip Skoko.

Fortunately for a group of some of the best local talent, that's exactly what they're about to get.

The former Socceroo, recently retired after a year in the A-League with Melbourne Heart, is taking his first tentative steps into life after football by joining forces with the Barwon Sports Academy.

While the details of his role are yet to be finalised, the 35-year-old will take on a mentoring role for the 35 athletes that were last night inducted into the academy's soccer program for this year.

How pleasing is it to see Josip involved in helping the region's up-and-coming soccer players? Have your say on the feedback form below
"As far as I know they were interested in giving a medal in my name and so I think there might be some sort of role model role going on as well where the kids can come in and give you a call or meet up with you when they need you," Skoko said last night.

"Whether it's before a big performance or whether it's someone going through an injury or something."

Your Say
"Onya Josip! Having watched you play all over the world it is fantastic to see you putting into the development of local talent. May many more Socceroos and Matildas come out the Geelong region!"
Jacko

While Skoko has no interest in getting heavily involved in a club environment again just yet, he said the academy provided a different opportunity.

"I'm already involved at North Geelong with the little kids junior football, that's something different, you can always put your hand up to help out and develop the game, especially in Geelong," he said. "To tell you the truth when I retired I just wanted to have a rest from the game, but this sort of thing (academy) is a little bit different.

"You'll always do little bits and pieces like this to help out kids and I suppose to help organise things and put something back into the game because you've done so much around the world, so you can see how things are going."

For pioneers of Australian soccer such as Skoko, there wasn't the opportunity to lean on professional players for support as he's about to provide some local kids.

"You always have someone there, whether it's the striker at your local club, there's always someone," he said.

"We always had guys coming through that we looked up to when we were smaller and obviously guys in Europe we would be watching. But it is nice when you can chat to people or someone who's done the things that I suppose I've done."

Barwon Sports Academy chief executive Cameron Loftus said the soccer program had grown this year and covered under-13s, under-15s and under-17s


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