10 years of hard work for Victoria’s Ajdin Hrustic has paid off as he embarks on his maiden Subway Socceroos world cup campaign.
Hrustic has been capped 19 times by Australia and scored three goals since making his debut as a substitute against Brazil in 2017. On 4 June 2021, Hrustic scored his first goal for Australia against Kuwait in a 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying match, bending the ball off the inside of the post from a free kick just outside the box.
The classy midfielder started his footballing journey at Heatherton United in 2004 before moving to South Melbourne in 2007.
Two years later, Hrustic made the switch to Sandringham City for a season until he moved to England at age 15 to join Nottingham Forest’s Youth Academy.
Hrustic then moved between Austrian and German youth systems before signing his first senior contract with Dutch Eredivisie club FC Groningen in 2015.
He played 67 times and scored seven goals for FC Groningen before transferring to Eintracht Frankfurt in 2020 where he made his name in the Bundesliga in September, he made a move to Serie A side Hellas Verona where he will play a major role for the Italian side moving forward.
Hrustic told The Age's Vince Vugari he was bursting at the seams to be amongst the action at the world cup.
"As a kid, you dream of stuff like this,” he said.
“You dream about wearing the No.10. You dream about playing in a World Cup, you dream about winning the Europa League, you dream about taking that penalty to take your team into the final or to win you a game."
After overcoming the odds to make it to Qatar, Hrustic said he was determined to prove the world wrong once again.
“The qualifiers, it wasn’t easy for us. Some of the press back home, it seemed like they were against us, not with us," he said.
"When we beat Peru, all that relief just came out. I don’t normally cry, I don’t show my emotion a lot, but sometimes, you can’t control it.”
“This is where Arnie, for me, is incredible: he makes us believe. He makes us imagine. He says he can’t do it without us, and we can’t do it without him. This is what makes us a collective.“
On October 16, Hrustic's world cup dream nearly vanished as he went up for a header, lost his balance, and heard a snap when he landed on his left foot.
“I shook it off, I had a little jog on the sideline. I tried to go back into the pitch. And I just felt it, and I was like no, no chance," he said.
The playmaker was forced to wait two days to have scans on his troubled ankle, with his world cup dreams hinging on the result, however, he is fit and ready to go.
“If it was bad, I wouldn’t be here. If I needed surgery, it would have been a whole different story,” he said. “You probably wouldn’t be sitting with me here. God was on my side for this one.”
Heatherton United vice-president Advan Lojic said it is “pretty surreal” to see his childhood friend about to play on the world stage.
“I am very happy for him, he deserves all the credit because he works very hard,” he explained.
“We all knew he was going to do something with his career, he was a freak of a kid.
“We always knew he could play at a high level it was just how far because he was very motivated and very keen.”
Lojic knew from the start, Hrustic would be something special.
“The first night he came to the club all of us at the club just thought ‘what the hell', this guy was freaky good,” he said.
“We became family friends through the club, and I remember going to his house and he was just like bang on the wall, bang on the wall, for hours practicing.
“In those junior years we were always in the top leagues, we had pretty good squads and he was a class above. He had a few games where he scored eight-nine goals on his own.”
Even before hitting his teenage years, Lojic said his determination to be the best set him apart from everyone else.
“Compared to the rest of the players, he put in 20 times the effort in terms of training and preparation,” he said.
“He would stay after training and sit there with a bag of balls and just take shots for an hour after training.
“If we had to rock up an hour before the game, he would arrive an hour and a half or two hours before to make sure he did everything he needed to do.”
“I think he had a lot more dedication than anyone else, that was what made him so good.”
Lojic recalled Hrustic idolising England superstar David Beckham in his early years.
“David Beckham was a leftie, and he was a leftie, he used to try to emulate him all the time,” he explained.
“He would always obsess over the top players at the time like, he was always trying to emulate what they were doing.”
Despite playing professional football on the other side of the globe, Hrustic hasn’t forgotten his roots.
“He always was a very humble guy, he wasn’t cocky at all,” Lojic said.
“Despite moving countries countless of times, he does keep in touch with friends from down here from his early days, he is good like that.”
Heatherton United is planning on hosting an event on Saturday, November 26 to support Hrustic and the national side.