Ask any professional footballer and they’ll tell you their stories of the other side of football.

The dodgy transfers, lies, jealousy, cliques, politics and how clubs can turn on their own players seemingly overnight.

It happens. It’s a cut-throat business.

And one footballer told me how ugly it can get in the merciless world of second-tier European football.

Last year, former Western Sydney Wanderers and Newcastle Jets midfielder Mateo Poljak had a dream of playing in the UEFA Europa League group stage.

Attracted by the prospect, in August last year the former Croatian youth international signed with Romanian club Astra Giurgiu, who added him to boost their chances in Europe.

Poljak played for five years in the A-League from 2012 with Western Sydney Wanderers – winning the Hyundai A-League Premiership in 2013 and an Asian Champions League in 2014 – and with Newcastle Jets from 2015, parting ways with the Jets in mid-2017. 

Early days in Australia playing for Wanderers

The talented Croatian-born player spoke highly of the A-League. But Europe was a stinging reminder of what football can be like.

“My ambition has always been to play at the highest level, and everybody knows that the highest level is in Europe," said Poljak.

"But I was aware, at 28 years of age, this would be one of the last chances to go back to Europe. I had a couple of options but this Romanian team was the pushiest.

"Everything had to be done very quickly because they had a due date to sign me because of the UEFA Europa League qualification stage. And if I didn’t sign by then, they’d pick someone else for that spot.

“I wanted to give it a go in the Europa League. And this club had a great history in Romania.

“But I knew it was a risk. I can’t say if it was a bad decision or not. I never look at it that way.

"For me to go there, to experience what I did, was maybe a way to appreciate even more what I have here [in Australia].”

When Poljak arrived, he quickly saw the raw talent at the club. That wasn’t in question.

“The Romanian boys are very talented," said the defensive midfielder. "It’s in their blood. The Balkans – call it what you will, but there are so many very good young and talented footballers.

“But, in terms of professionalism, discipline and mentality, they are nowhere near. I’d say their mentality is very poor.

“Even the coach that brought me to the club said he signed me because I was Croatian, and Croatians are really hard-working people.

“After coming from a structured, strict environment [in the A-League], it’s not easy to settle in. 

“Not just working under Tony Popovic [Poljak's former coach at Wanderers] but coming from the A-League in general where every one percent off the pitch is going to affect performance and everyone is trying to be their best in their free time, before training, after training and in their break in the off-season.

“In Romania, you can see on a weekly basis, regardless of if there are two games a week with maybe one in the UEFA Europa League, it was very loose.

"I was shocked by this. Other boys were laughing, saying: ‘You’ll see in a couple of weeks, you’ll be like us.’

“I couldn’t do that. That’s not my character. I’m used to being an organised, disciplined professional. All my life. So I can’t go there and change. I’d only change for the worse.”

Sadly, it did get worse.

“I played two games in the UEFA Europa League qualification rounds. We went to Ukraine to play Olexandriya and we also faced a team from Azerbaijan [Zira FK]," he said.

“These games were midweek. It was similar to the Asian Champions League. There was a lot of traveling. To Baku in Azerbaijan there was no direct flight, and if there was, my club didn’t organise it properly.

“The lack of organisation was ridiculous. We went to the airport and the club hadn’t sorted our visas.

“So there we were lining up at the airport, giving them our passports, then we had to fill in forms. There was confusion and the team manager was trying to fill in other forms. 

“The club had to pay on the spot for the costs, and then there was a misunderstanding with passports for foreign boys who were listed as Romanian.

“Despite that, the football was good because every club had ambitions of making the UEFA Europa League group stage. You’re put in the best hotels, facilities were all good.”

The ex-Jets star says he was bullied 'big time' in Romania

But in the end, Poljak’s new club didn’t qualify for the group stage. That’s when he says it got nasty.

“They brought me in with the ambitions of making it. I signed a two-year deal," he said. "Once we didn’t make it, it was an ugly departure. It was very ugly from there. 

“They said they weren’t going to pay out my contract.

“If I was there on my own by myself, I’d say, ‘OK, let’s fight. We’ll see’, because, I can handle a lot of stuff.

"You can try and torture me, I can handle it. Mentally I can handle it. But I went there [to Romania] with my wife and daughter. At the time, my daughter was eight or nine months old.

“For my family to go through something like that, it wasn’t worth it.

“A week or two after failing to qualify I got an injury. I was just getting back into training, preparing for the next game, and they called me to say you’ve got a meeting with the club.

“I had no idea what it was for. They said the ambition was to qualify for UEFA Europa League. 'We didn’t make it. And we can’t afford you anymore,' they said.

“And of course, I wanted to make it for myself. That’s the reason I went there. I didn’t go there because I loved Romanian football. I went there to play UEFA Europa League and then get somewhere better.

"I was shocked when they told me, but what do you do?

“In the contract was a sign-on fee. They did pay that, but then after I got basically nothing for six to eight weeks. None of the boys got paid. No-one.

“It was always, ‘Next week, next week’. Those cheap lines they throw at you.

“Boys there had families and I came from the other side of the world.

“I got a call from my landlord saying the club hadn’t paid him for two months for the apartment. He said, 'Do you want to pay instead?' I said, 'No chance, they haven’t paid me either!' 'You have until Friday to get out,' the landlord said.

“Did I really want to stay in Romania without getting paid? I had enough contacts with lawyers and I contacted the PFA in Australia and they were very helpful straight away. They really helped on a daily basis.

“And I got involved with my lawyer in Croatia too. He had dealt with Croatian players who had issues in Romania before.”

Soon, Poljak says he started getting threats.

But Poljack said: “It was never anyone from the club.

“They said you’re not going to train with the first team anymore. You’ll train with the second team and you’ll see what type of players you’ll be faced with.

"These are the ones who will break your legs. The last thing they said to me was, 'We’ll break your legs'."

Better days: Celebrating with RBB fans in 2014

Of course, a footballer’s life isn’t just at the club. In Poljak’s case, his family was with him. And it got worse.

“My little daughter [Mia] got sick. For the first time in her life, she got a fever," said Poljak.

“So we took her to a private hospital in Bucharest. We were told, through connections, a very good doctor would look after her.

“But once we saw what they were doing to our daughter... I forgot everything about football. I said, 'Pack up, let’s go'. Nothing else was important anymore.

“She was only eight or nine months old and they wanted to take three bottles of her blood. Just because of the flu? They were squeezing her arm. Once they put the needle in, they were squeezing her.

“And she’s crying for 10-minutes because it was drop by drop.

“So after two or three weeks of this ugly stuff with threats and you’re going to train with the second team, I said no worries. I’ll train with the second team but you still have to pay me. 

“When they saw I was serious, they said they’ll take the car of me. I said, ‘Who’ll take it off me? I want to see someone physically take the car off me'. “They said the police will take the car off me.

“Why the police? I hadn’t done anything... The club stopped paying the lease with the car company. So they said the police will come and take it off you.

“I had a car in my contract. So they said we’ll give you the worst car ever so you drive your young family in this dangerous car.

“Anyway, when my daughter got sick, I said we’ll find a way to get out of this.

“So they offered me to go on loan at another Romanian club and said they’d pay half my wages and my [current] Romanian club pay half. But if they didn’t pay anything before, why would I trust them?

"And when I asked about this new loan club, my club said, ‘They’re alright, but not as organised as we are'. Not as organised as we are??

“So I did sign the release at the end of the transfer window in late August on not the best terms but it wasn’t really important to me anymore. I just did what I had to do.

"We wanted to play tough with the club and we did, but then what happened with our daughter, it wasn’t worth it anymore.

“After what we’d been through, I wasn’t sure I wanted it anymore. My wife said, 'Let’s go back to Australia.'"

Poljak returned to Australia late last year. He trained with Marconi and they signed him for the 2018 NPL season.

“It was good to be back." he admitted. "I have a home not far from here [in Sydney’s West].

“I have to be honest, after that experience in Romania, a lot of things go through your head and you don’t feel that passion for football anymore.

"But I’m grateful for what football gave me and I can say I’m enjoying my football again.

"The biggest things in my life happened in Australia. I got married here; I have a daughter born here and another one on the way.

“I was on a distinguished talent visa through soccer and won the Asian Champions League with Wanderers.

“Unfortunately things like this need to happen to remind you, a family is the most important thing in life.”