The 32-year-old former Victory, Jets and Hajduk Split defender, currently playing for Melbourne Knights in the VPL, is said to be closing in on a deal abroad.

The move could be to Asia with South China believed to be in the mix for his services.

With the player over a long-term injury and playing pain free, his form at club level is returning as the Knights zoom up the ladder.

But the former Australian national team defender (capped six times), UEFA Champions League and Europa League player says with maturity comes understanding and he’s apologetic for upsetting some people with his earlier comments.

LJUBO HITS BACK AT AFL

SEE OUR DAY WITH LJUBO PIC SPECIAL FROM HIS DAYS IN NEWCASTLE

How you going Ljubo?
Yeah, great. Before I left I wanted to basically tell people where I’m at and it's all positive, it's nothing scandalous it's nothing controversial. It's basically me forgiving myself for sabotaging my career or my life up until now. It's taken me 15 years of a career, 15 years of extreme highs and extreme lows to realise what I was doing to myself and the conflict I kept bringing to my life and that was all born out of my ego.

I didn't realise what was going on until my last destination, a club that I loved more than any part of the world more than any: Hajduk-Split. And when I finally got rejected there in the end it wasn't due to me speaking out it was for the fact that the club couldn't pay me for six months and I had a few injuries so in the end it was for a variety of reasons, and I finally held my breath and I didn't say anything when I left and I tried to understand why this kept happening. Why, why?

It took me a while, and a lot of deep reflection, a lot of time on my own, and finally by doing yoga every day I calmed my mind down. I finally stopped and reconnected to who I really am, and with the aid of meditation I just realised I'm to blame, no-one else, I'm the one who's got conflict in my life, I’m the one who took on every ego that crossed my path. I'm the one who had the bigger ego who thought he could take everyone on - it isn't necessary. If you live your life like that there's always going to be turmoil.

If you want to be angry, if you want to be negative, it's in your face all the time and you can find it anywhere. It finally hit me about a month ago, and since then life's been really positive and really happy. I definitely felt the need to say this publicly, because I’ve said a lot publicly and I needed to say that I've forgiven myself and that along the way I've upset people, caused angst, or caused anger. I've caused controversy, I've said a lot of things that were from the heart but they were misguided at times.

I'm just being open and honest. I was misguided as in the fact that I genuinely believe in a lot of the things that I've said, but my approach and my demeanour when it comes from a place of anger and negativity, everything is lost in the words, everything's lost because people focus on that.

If I had been coming from a place of kindness and compassion, well, then it would of resonated much more for people and I realise that now and I apologise to whoever may have been rubbed up the wrong way along the way, in my journey.

But at the same time, I feel like I'm here to create awareness and just be positive. I was always a nice guy to my mates and to the people close to me, and somewhere along the line with rejection, outwardly I became the guy who I'm not. I'm glad that I'm going back to where I was and I'm glad I found myself.

How’s everything on the park?
Yeah, well as far as the body goes and soccer goes, it's been fantastic. I've been with the Knights for the last three months and I've played the last seven or eight games in a row. I'm very thankful to the president down there and obviously Andrew Marth and Frank Juric for welcoming me with open arms, along with the whole team. We slowly but surely gelled and we've been having great results, we've keeping a lot of clean sheets, we've been winning quite a few games, racing up the table and we're currently sitting second As long as the team stays together, I don't see why we can't win the title for the Melbourne Knights fans and the club, because that's where they deserve to be - on top.

Although you might not be there when they lift that trophy if they do indeed?
Well, currently there's interest and it's Asia, America and the Middle East. But to be honest, it's going to have to be an amazing offer to pull me away from the Knights before the season's finished. There's only a couple of months to go and I love the club, I always have, and I love the boys and everyone down at the club because it's a family club. It always has been. It used to be a bigger family, unfortunately now it's maybe a slightly smaller family - but everyone's welcome with open arms and I can't walk away from that environment that easily.

And what's the future for you? How do you see the future panning out for you and your life?
Look. I just seek happiness and I just seek calmness and I just seek peace and you know, goals that I've got, aspirations, ambitions, time will reveal all of that but at the moment, I'm just focusing on being true to my inner being, which is just being happy.

What does happiness mean to you?
Everything really. I guess we've all got a choice on the lives that we decide to lead and the people we want to be. I chose for a long time to be an angry, young guy, and therefore I attracted anger back in to my life and negativity. I'm choosing now not to be and so therefore happiness is just being. It's just enjoying the moment, stay in the moment. Not thinking too far ahead just basically being present every day in every conversation in every step you take walking down the road.

And being back in Melbourne, has that been a positive for you?
Yeah it has, because Melbourne traditionally for me has been, I guess, home base but at the same time, one of the most chaotic places for me in my life just because I've got all my friends here and I've got all the distractions a young man could ever want, need or desire. So to finally be at peace and calm here, I feel as though if I've achieved that then i can definitely be at peace and calm anywhere.

That anywhere could be in Asia or could be in the USA or even the Middle East. Do you have a preference at all?
I gotta feeling that it's going to be Asia first, but after that, it could be anywhere. It's taken me a while to get the body right after being at Hajduk and things going a little bit downhill with not being paid and being shunned out of the team because they basically wanted to get rid of us older guys on bigger contracts. It took me a while to recover, my body's great now. My knees are great and it took about six months of a slow build-up of rehab but I feel great, I'm playing every game, I'm backing up, there's no residual soreness, or aches and pains. I feel as though I'm going to play for the next five years, at least.