A former junior with NPL Victoria side Pascoe Vale, Colakovski made his senior debut for the artist formerly-known-as-Heart against Wellington Phoenix in round four, coming on for fellow youngster Connor Metcalfe and playing the final 13 minutes in his side’s 3-2 win.

He’s since gone on to make three further appearances for Head Coach Erick Mombaerts’ side, including a 17-minute appearance against Brisbane Roar in round 14 that was promising enough for Herald Sun chief football writer David Davutovic to draw comparisons with Daniel Arzani.

“I’m happy for him to sign this [contract],” Mombaerts said on Friday.

“He has a high level of quality with his strengths. His speed, he is fast, he is a fast player and he can dribble well also.

“This kind of player is not easy to find in our style of play. We need this type of player; we have to develop this kind of player.

“He has to improve, he knows this, but his attitude is so good so let’s see, let’s see, in the future, with our training and also with his attitude to improve, we’ll see.”

Making Calakovski’s journey to the first-team and a senior deal even more of an achievement is that the youngster suffered a tear to his ACL in the final game of the 2017 NPL Victoria season, an injury that would put him on the shelf for almost 15 months.

Forced to work his way back up the City academy pecking order as a result, he wasn’t amongst the first round of scholarship recipients ahead of the season – with his academy contract only upgraded to a scholarship following his debut against Wellington.

“There was a lot of times when I was like maybe I need to go elsewhere, because if it’s not going to happen here then I can’t wait around forever,” he recalled.

“I was training with the first team full-time and obviously the scholarship didn’t come around the first time and I was mentally… I wasn’t thinking my future would be here.

“But obviously the scholarship came and from there it just took off. I felt a lot more confident; I felt a bit of security.”