Goran Talevski

Age 25
Club Altona Magic
League Foxtel Cup Victoria
Position Attacking midfielder

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Ask players who’ve rubbed shoulders with the Altona Magic star and they’ll tell you he should be in the A-League. Newly minted Mariners signing Michael Jedinak played alongside Talevski at Sydney United five years ago.

“He’s versatile in that he can play wide midfield or up-front and even at the back. He’s exciting, fast and strong. Yes, I think he can play in the A-League.”

Talevski’s fellow Victorian League star Daniel Visevic adds, “he makes it look so easy and can run past defenders with effortlessness. Goran’s definitely
A-League material.”

An attacking, fluid midfielder, Talevski is a former AIS scholarship holder (1997 to 1999) who grew up in Canberra under the watchful eye of his “greatest influence”, his father Costa Talevski, who played NSL for Canberra City under the late Johnny Warren in the ’70s.

Following his AIS stint, Goran soon graduated to the ranks of the NSL with then-top side Sydney United, where he played 19 games and he scored once for the Pumas. He then made the short hop across to Marconi for a season.

“After that, I moved overseas to play professionally with Hajduk Split in Croatia. I was there for three years playing in the first team for about 50-odd games.”

Under Zoran Vulic, Talevski also got to play in two UEFA Cup fixtures and the young Aussie revelled in the full-time environment.

“Training sometime three times a day was excellent for me but as it seems to be, money problems come into it and I had to come back.”

The script didn’t quite go to plan once he returned to Sydney. On the cusp of the A-League, a trial with Queensland didn’t yield a contract for whatever reason and he was left without a club.

“I had to play somewhere so I went to the Melbourne Knights. Then my current club Altona Magic showed great interest in me and I joined last season,” says Talevski.

He is, as you’d expect, desperate to get his career back on track as he moves into his peak as a player. “I train with Magic and I also train on my own. I am a professional player. It’s all I do.”