Perth midfielder Wayne Srhoj is relishing his opportunity in the Glory starting eleven after working overtime on the training track to ensure he took a firm grip on the central midfield role.
Perth midfielder Wayne Srhoj is relishing his opportunity in the Glory starting eleven after working overtime on the training track to ensure he took a firm grip on the central midfield role.
Srhoj joined Glory in early September after returning from Romania and has been one of the club-s quiet achievers, impressing in his duties alongside skipper Jamie Coyne in the centre of the park.
His performances have helped spark Glory-s positive form and has proved more than a handy replacement for Brazilian star Amaral who has been absent with a knee injury.
The depth of Perth-s midfield means positions aren-t guaranteed but Srhoj said that-s an environment which brings out the best in the team.
“I don’t think anyone’s secure, which is a good thing,” Srhoj said.
“You want that in a team, you want two or three players fighting for positions, competition keeps everyone on their toes.”
Srhoj previously played for Glory in the National Soccer League (NSL) and was part of the side that stunned Parramatta in the 2003/04 grand final. In the 18 months before the Hyundai A-League commenced, Srhoj headed to Romania, where he eventually played 51 matches for capital side FC National Bucharest before moving north-west to play 26 matches with FC Timisoara.
However, Srhoj was forced to move on after just one season with Timisoara when UEFA adopted strict European Union rules governing the number of non-EU players at a club. It was unfortunate timing after Timisoara finish sixth in the Romanian league and qualified for the UEFA Cup.
“I was here the last year of the NSL and it finished for a year, nothing else was played,” Srhoj recalled.
“Another Aussie boy playing over there at the time, Jon McCain (currently at Wellington), he got in contact and in the space of a few weeks I was over there, so it all happened pretty quickly.
“The lifestyle is different, there is a language barrier and the football is different as well but you adapt to your surroundings. It’s a very diverse country, you have your rich and your poor but we lived a good life there,” Srhoj said.
“Originally when I first went there they had eight foreigners in the teams, but in the last year it was down to five and now I think there’s only about three.
“It would have been good too stay there and play in the UEFA but at the end of the day I’m here and I’m enjoying it,” he said.
