For the third year in succession, the Croatian Soccer Association of Australia (CSAA) will be sending an “Australian Croatian U14s Select team” to travel to Croatia to take part in an international invitational football tournament in Vukovar.
Playing under the banner of “Team Australia”, the squad will compete at the 21st “Memorijal Vukovarskih Branitelja” (Memorial of Croatian Defenders) U-14 International tournament to be staged in Vukovar from the 25-27 April.
The CSAA recently announced the final composition of the 18-player squad that will represent the Croatian Diaspora within Australia, and for the first time, also New Zealand.
“Following the successful staging of the CSAA-HNS Football Development camps in Sydney and Melbourne in January this year, a preliminary “Team Australia” squad was selected by the HNS (Croatian Football Federation),” said the President of the CSAA Jure Dragović.
“This initial squad was comprised of 15 talented Australian born footballers of Croatian heritage – nine hailing from Sydney, three from Melbourne, two from Perth and one from Adelaide,” he added.
Three highly talented “overseas based” players added to squad
“In subsequent discussions with the HNS, they have now recommended that three other highly talented “overseas based” players, be added to the CSAA’s 2025 Vukovar squad,” continued Dragović.
“Two of whom were born ‘locally’ (one in Geelong and the other in New Zealand), whilst the third player is a talented Zadar born goalkeeper whose progress the HNS has been closely monitoring over the last two years.
“On behalf of all our member clubs, the CSAA Board would like to once again congratulate the selected players (and their families) and wish them all the very best representing our Savez community in Croatia later this month,” said Dragović.
Knight’s TD to coach Select team again
This year’s “Team Australia” Select will once again be coached by Josip Lončarić, who assumed the role of co-coach for the inaugural Select team in 2023 alongside Sydney based Petar Marković.
Lončarić is the current Director of Football at the Melbourne Knights and is also a highly regarded junior coach in Melbourne.
The list of players in the Croatian U14s select side representing the CSAA at this year’s “Memorijal Vukovarskih Branitelja” tournament includes the following:
Kristian KOMADINA (Nepean FC, NSW)
Nicholas GRGUREVIĆ (Melbourne Knights, VIC)
Anton STANOJEVIĆ (Fremantle City, WA)
Dylan VIDOŠ (Williams Landing, VIC)
Lucas JUSIĆ (Sydney United, NSW)
Michae NIZICH (Sydney United, NSW)
Marko PALEKA (Adelaide Croatia Raiders, SA)
Jordan VONJA (Western United, VIC)
Oliver BRČIĆ (Sydney United, NSW)
Brandon LOBOJA (St George City, NSW)
Maksim TOMIĆ (Murdoch University Melville, WA)
Benjamin BASARIĆ (Sutherland Sharks, NSW)
Benji ČOP (Sydney United, NSW)
Kristian BOŠNJAK (Nepean FC, NSW)
Luka MRDJEN (Sydney United, NSW)
Mijat JUKIĆ (NK Savica – Croatia)
Leo VARZIĆ (HNK Zadar – Croatia)
Marc JAMES (SL Benfica – Portugal)