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AC Milan Australian goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac grabs the ball as Inter Milan Argentine forward Julio Cruz falls down, during their Italian major league soccer match, at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Sunday,May 4 , 2008. AP Photo/Luca Bruno
It wasn’t so long ago, November last year, in fact, that Zeljko Kalac was talking about returning to Australia to coach in the A-League. Coaching, not playing.
“I’ve had a lot of critics in my career, and if I went back and tried to play in the A-League, my motivation would only be about 30 per cent and when it’s that low you are bound to make mistakes,” he told SBS. “That would just give fuel to people who would want to knock me. No thanks.”
Funny that a guy who puts so much store in motivation can turn his back on his representative career because he’s lost the will to fight for the No. 1 jersey and decides he’s happy being a permanent back-up keeper at AC Milan.
Who could blame him though?
What goalkeeper coming to the end of his career would turn down that opportunity? Italian digs. Nice fat pay cheques. Hanging out with Ronaldinho, Clarence Seedorf and, until recently, Kaka.
Get a few jerseys signed for the lads back home. Spend a few bob down the betting shop. A bloody doddle.
But ten months on, Kalac’s charmed life has come to an end.
New Rossoneri coach Leonardo has decided the Australian is surplus to requirements at the San Siro and terminated his contract by “mutual consent.”
Kalac’s replacement is AS Monaco’s Flavio Roma.
It really was too good to last, especially for a player who is a model of inconsistency. Kalac should be thankful he managed to stay there nearly four years and made a motsa in the process.
Some regard him as an inspiration. An Australian at AC Milan? Respect.
Others, such as Mark Schwarzer, take another view: that Kalac took the easy option. Didn’t challenge himself.
Certainly Schwarzer makes great hay out of the fact he is playing regular first-team football for a European club and his old adversary is not. Equally, though, it could be said Schwarzer never challenged himself by taking up offers from Bayern Munich and Juventus when they were on the table.
He didn’t take them up because he wasn’t guaranteed first-team football.
The pressing question now, though, is does Kalac have the humility to come back to Australia and find that motivation he says he would lack playing in the A-League?
I hope he does.
He has made all sorts of noise about wanting to put something back into the Australian game and I don’t think there would be a better way to do that than still be playing. He’s 36, hardly a senior citizen for a goalkeeper, and would have two or three seasons left in him.
There’s talk of a Parma move but that in my view would not a fitting end to Spider’s career: it should be in Australia, in the A-League, when he’s still got something left to give.
If Jason Culina can come back at the age of 28 (he just turned 29), then there’s no good reason why Kalac can’t come back now.
There wasn’t a whole lot to be proved by being a benchwarmer at Milan, but there’s plenty in swallowing his pride and coming home.
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