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Newcastle Jets recruit Mark Milligan insists he’s thrilled to be resurrecting his career in the A-League despite having to postpone his dream of playing in Europe.
The former Sydney FC defender and Olyroos captain has agreed to a seven-match guest player stint this year and will join the reigning champions on a fulltime basis next season.
An A-League return would seem a less-than-ideal scenario for 23-year-old Milligan, who has spent most of the last six months trialling with several clubs in Europe including Arsenal, Porto and most recently Werder Bremen.
But following his omission from the Socceroos’ squad that beat Qatar and a warning from national coach Pim Verbeek that he needed to be playing regular football to remain in contention for the senior team, Milligan has been forced to bite the bullet and return home.
Milligan said stringent work permit rules were behind him being unable to land a contract in Europe but stressed today he was far from shattered to be returning to Australia.
“As I made clear before I went away, I wasn’t heading overseas just for the sake of heading overseas,” Milligan said.
“I wanted to do it to better myself to better my career and unfortunately things didn’t work out so coming home and being given the chance here is outstanding.”
Milligan, who has six Socceroos caps, said he was genuinely excited about his playing return.
“I was actually talking to my mother the other day and saying I haven’t felt like this since I was a little kid,” Milligan said.
“I haven’t wanted to play so much and just get back involved.”
Milligan still harbours both Socceroos and European ambitions – Jets coach Gary van Egmond said that had been an attraction rather than a deterrence to signing him.
“Mark’s a very ambitious player and I like players that have got ambition,” van Egmond said.
“He obviously wants to do a job here and now with Newcastle but he’s looking at furthering his career as far as it can go.
“He realises his first port of call is to get playing and start enjoying the game again and getting himself back into the national team.
“Hopefully we can facilitate that here.”
Milligan is determined to figure in the rest of Australia’s World Cup qualifying campaign but said he hadn’t mapped out a timetable for his return.
“Pim’s been very good with me … so he has let me know that he’ll be keeping an eye on me but his main focus and my main focus over the last few weeks has just been to get settled and get playing again,” Milligan said.
Milligan’s stint with the Jets was not expected to begin until round 11 but van Egmond said he could feature as early as this weekend’s F3 derby against Central Coast.
“We will have a look at him at training on Thursday and have a look at his shape and see how we go from there,” van Egmond said.
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