By Patrick Brischetto (@PatBrischetto)
Miloš Ninković has said that Sydney FC’s demand that he acquire Australian citizenship was a key reason behind his departure from the club.
The Serbian maestro, who played 221 games in Sky Blue and helped them win seven trophies, defected to city rivals Western Sydney Wanderers in acrimonious circumstances. Speaking to Kick360, he says that Sydney’s ultimatum made him feel unwanted at the club.
“I couldn’t believe that I need to come for three months training [for] whole preseason, and if I get citizenship, then I can play one more year, If I don’t get the citizenship then I have to retire.
“The first time I had a conversation with Bimbi [coach Steve Corica] was in Vietnam, and that was probably a month before the season finished. And I think they had enough time to tell me just tell me the truth. You know, okay, ‘we want you or we don’t want you'”
He says that Sydney’s action were ‘disrespectful’ and contrasted strongly with how he was treated by the Wanderers when they came knocking.
“I felt disrespect, I felt really bad that my career will depend on if I get the citizenship or not. That means if I get the citizenship I can play if I don’t get the citizenship I have to retire. [Then] I spoke with Mark Rudan, and the way he talked with me, I was like ‘wow’, you know, he wanted me to come and what he said to me meant a lot to me.
“I will say that the Wanderers, that I don’t even play one second for the team, [but] they showed me more respect than the club that I spent seven years and that’s the truth.”
His signing at the Wanderers ended a protracted saga that saw the player post a video to his personal Instagram to announce his departure from the club and his emotions, before a club statement claimed that club and player were “continuing discussions” about his future. Ninković says that he deleted the post on the request of Sydney FC CEO Adam Santo, but was confused by the club’s statement stating that negotiations were still ongoing.
“I didn’t expect after that the club will come out and say that they offered me a contract to play, which is not true. And probably after that the fans were confused and then probably they thought that SFC offered me a deal and then Wanderers is offering me more money and that’s why I signed for Wanderers, which is totally not true.”
His departure came after the club missed the finals for only the second time in his seven year tenure at the club, where fixture changes and participation in the Asian Champions League heavily impacted their season.
“It was a pretty strange season, we had Champions League, and then in the beginning of the season, we had every two days a game. That was that was really, really hard because sometimes, for example, coaches didn’t have time to prepare the game because he was sometimes like ‘we are playing on Thursday’, and then on Wednesday, they said that the game is off.
“I think for us it was really hard because they said with the schedule that we need to finish before everyone else, because we had the Champions League. And yeah, it was a little bit strange season, and probably that was one of the reasons that, obviously, when you play every second day or three days it’s really hard to recover and to perform well.”
Ninković is one of 16 new players to arrive in Western Sydney, and is hopeful of recreating a winning culture seen at some of his previous clubs.
“The most important thing [is that] we have good group of people, which is very important. That’s why we’ve been so successful in Sydney FC, you know, we have great players but if you don’t have good people in the dressing room it’s hard to win. So many times I had in Dynamo Kyiv that we have unbelievable players but we didn’t have that good spirit you know, and we couldn’t win.”
With the club not having qualified for the finals since 2017, Ninković is aiming to end that run and more.
“This is not my goal to make top six, you know, my goal is to win. Obviously no one can guarantee you that you’re gonna win but I always had a goal I always hit and I always have a goal to win.”
And whilst he played the least minutes of his A-League Men’s career last season, he is still aiming to be a key cog in Rudan’s machine.
“The conversation I had with with Mark before I signed for Wanderers, he said, ‘look, I want you in my team’ because obviously I still think I can help them. How much I’m gonna play depends how I’m gonna go through all preseason, but definitely, I still think I can help the team to win. I can help young players to develop to be better on the field and off the field.”
All eyes will be on Western Sydney’s new number 10 in the first Sydney Derby in round six, and Ninković admits he is unsure of the reception he will get from the Sydney faithful.
“I don’t know what I can expect. Obviously I’m going to play 100% to win the game for Wanderers. I had unbelievable relationship with Sydney FC fans; obviously I didn’t have a chance to play last game for Sydney FC and hopefully I’m gonna have good relationship with Wanderers fans, because everywhere I played I have great relationship with the fans.
“Definitely I don’t expect that someone will clap me from the Sydney FC fans, but my job now is to win games and win trophies with Western Sydney Wanderers, and I’m gonna do everything I can in every training session and I will do my best in every game.”
Featured Image: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images
