Nicolas Milanovic: Everyone dreams of that first Socceroos cap
Potential CommBank Socceroos debutant Nicolas Milanovic said that he was hoping to impress the staff at his first official camp and earn his first international cap against New Zealand.
With both he and his teammates striving for limited FIFA World Cup places, the Aberdeen forward said that there was no such thing as an international friendly as the team hopes to make it two wins from two in the Soccer Ashes.
He also touched on his time in Scotland playing for Aberdeen so far this season, and his thoughts on the success of the younger generation of Socceroos.
Striving for selection
It's refreshing, because everyone dreams of that first cap. I've been waiting a bit now for mine, and still striving every day and working every day at club level to try and achieve those goals of making not one cap, but hopefully 10, 20, 30. It’s good to see other boys as well. You’ve got Adrian [Segecic] and Noah [Botic], a few that haven't made a cap as well. We're all striving for the same thing, to get a cap in.
It's a whole team thing. We have this two-legged tie against New Zealand, and everyone wants to win. The word friendly is not so good around here. So that comes with the first cap, to win. You want to impress the coach, impress the staff, and hopefully come back again.
No friendlies in football
That's the message. There are no real friendlies in football anywhere, to be fair. It's [the message is] to win, and the best way we can do that is - we've got a few new boys now to get comfortable with the system and play the way the coach wants to play, and hopefully that'll win us two games.
Life in Aberdeen
I'm enjoying it, to be honest. It’s a peaceful place. It gets cold, as they say, so I’m prepared for that. I’m settling well, I've started straight away playing games every three to four days. We’re right in the thick of it now. We haven't started as well as we would like in Aberdeen, but there are plenty of games to go.
Every kid dreams to play in Europe, and that whole process of games every three or four days. Training less than you would here, the recovery side, the travel side, all that. I'm really enjoying it.
Aussies Abroad
We're all pushing each other because we all want, eventually, a spot to go to the World Cup. So you can see that in the last year or so, there are so many young Aussies going overseas. I don't think I've seen this many go ever since being involved in Aussie football. I would say it's a new wave. There are moves everywhere around Europe, and this whole squad is from Europe. So there are already 25 players that are playing overseas.
It's more so everyone challenging each other for spots and trying to impress the national team at club level. You can see that - everyone's doing well, everyone's going overseas, and everyone's playing. I’m happy that everyone has got to go overseas.
Family support
I've got a big family. I've got a lot of cousins, a lot of aunties and uncles. You don't know when your first cap is going to come. Obviously, they're all going to be coming down to Canberra. So hopefully, it would be great to get the cap there. But whenever it comes, it comes. It's more a waiting thing, because you’ve got to believe in yourself and know that one day you will get there. I'm right there on the edge, and I've got my whole family backing me.