New Melbourne Victory signing Daniel Georgievski revealed that the ever-increasing quality the Hyundai A-League was a factor in his decision to return to Australia as he fronted the media for the first time since joining the Victory.
The 26-year-old returns to the country of his birth, joining the A-League outfit on a one-year-deal after playing two years with Romania’s Steaua Bucharest.
“I didn’t know much about the A-League to tell you the truth. I’d followed it when I came home for holidays. Muscat called me, [we] had a long chat and I made my decision to come here,” Georgievski said.
“I used to watch the A-League and as the seasons went past, it started getting better and better and that made my decision much easier to come here.
“The first couple of seasons I watched was all aggression like the NSL but now they’ve brought in players from Europe and a lot of training sessions with the technical side so I have to get my game into the A-League so we’ll see how it goes, I’m looking forward to it,” he added.
The talented right-back will certainly cause some selection headaches for coach Kevin Muscat as he looks to lock down a full-back spot in a squad that has the likes of young Socceroo’s Scott Galloway and Jason Geria.
However, Georgievski admits the competition for spots will push him to succeed and says he could play either on the left or right of the pitch as needed by the Victory coaching staff.
“It’s good to have competition; it’s part of our game,” he said.
“If there was only one player per each position, it’d be much easier but you have younger players coming in and they’re eager to play, they want to show themselves, that’s actually more motivation for someone like myself to push forward and actually use that as an inspiration.
“With me coming in, it’ll be either left or right, it really depends on the situation and what is needed – I’m just a worker, whatever the coach says you do and you do it to the best of your ability.”
The Macedonian international also said he is looking forward to bringing the experience he gained playing in Europe to Melbourne Victory and admitted that playing in the UEFA Champions League against sides like Chelsea and Schalke 04 was “a dream come true”.
“[Playing in Romania] definitely built my game up to a different level, it’s built my body up and my mind and experience. I’d like to bring that to my game here as a Melbourne Victory player.
“[The Champions League] was an experience – it’s something that you dream of as a child, waking up to watch the Champions League and to actually play in it with the likes of [Fernando] Torres, [Samuel] Eto’o and [Eden] Hazard was just a dream come true but that dream was short-lived and I’m here so I’m happy to bring that experience here as much as possible.”