One of the greats of Australian football, Josip Skoko, will be farwelled from professional football this weekend. The 35-year-old is battling a knee injury and will hopefully appear for the Melbourne Heart against Sydney FC at AAMI Park this Saturday in his final game.
Skoko has been one of the best but most unheralded Australian players of his generation. Immensely talented, the midfielder has found success throughout his career.
He had four years at Croatian club Hadjuk Spilt from 1995-99, making 97 appearances and scoring 20 goals, before a move to Belgium with Genk. It was there, in 2002, that he captained Genk to the Belgian championship before making the switch to Turkey for two seasons at Genclerbirligi, where he was part of a successful UEFA Cup run.
It was in 2005 that he joined Wigan Athletic in England, spending 2006 on loan at Stoke. Despite having trouble breaking into the starting line-up at Wigan in the beginning, he would eventually play 45 matches for the club.
In 2008 he returned to his former club Hadjuk Spilt, where he spent two more years, before returning to Australia in 2010 to play in the Heart’s debut season.
Skoko has largely flown under the radar during his career, never seeking attention and quietly going about his business.
Perhaps, partly because most of his time was spent in European leagues that don’t get much coverage in Australia – Croatia, Belgium, Turkey – he never got the column inches some of his golden generation Socceroo teammates like Harry Kewell, John Aloisi and his good friend Mark Viduka did.
But Skoko was just as successful and just as talented as they were, and was always highly regarded by his teammates. A creative player with great technique and a good football brain, Skoko was an asset in any team he played in.
He was graduate of Ron Smith at the AIS in 1993, was a Young Socceroo and played for the Olyroos at the Sydney Olympics. All up he played 51 matches for the Socceroos and scored nine goals, which is no mean feat.
That puts him among the top 20 players who have played the most games for Australia. He was a key part of Guus Hiddink’s famous World Cup qualifying team, appearing in the history-making win against Uruguay, and scored some great goals during his career as well.
The cracker against Greece at the MCG in 2006 immediately comes to mind.
Apparently he is only a 50-50 chance of being fit for the game this Saturday.
Let’s hope he gets to play and gets a resounding send off. He has been a class act in the A-League this season, a very canny acquisition by the Heart.
Always a faithful servant of Australian football, someone who has experienced both the bad and good times in the sport, Skoko deserves our respect and our thanks.
John Davidson
Roar Guru
Yes Aloisi is as well. Another legend.
Mr
Guest
Legend for the Green & Gold. Onya Josip! Isn't Aloisi retiring on Sat night also?
Roarchild
Roar Guru
I didn't say none I said Nth Qld produces more...which it does! Steve Corica – 32 caps Adam Sarota – Fc Utrecht Shane Stefanutto – 3 caps Kasey Wehrman – 12 caps Mitch Langerak - Dortmund Shane Higgins Caravhella Clint Bolton – 4 caps Wayne Srhoj Taj Minniecon Michaal Thwaite – 6 caps Josh Rose
Rob McLean
Guest
Skoko was born in Mt Gambier, South Australia, and lived there until he was 12 and played for the Croatia Soccer Club.
Funktapuss
Guest
Who was saying Geelong produces no footballers and Townsville creates a lot more? Geelong should have been in the A-League generations before a team in FNQ.
John Davidson
Roar Guru
He's played in 21 games this season, which is not a bad haul. Was a shame him and Stan didn't get on the park in Germany, considering all they've done for Australian football, but both will be remembered as greats of the game.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Fantastic article, John Davidson .. hope someone shows it to Josip. For me, Josip embodies everything I love about football: he was supremely technically-gifted and he had a wonderful tactical brain that told him where to run and where to pass (as we know, in football you don't need to run like a headless chook looking for the ball - if you're tactically astute, the ball will find you). And, whilst I never met Josip, he always projected an image as one of life's true gentlemen. No drunken embarrassing moments on end-of season trips, no surly behaviour ... and, always a smile on his face. If there was one major disappointment for me at WC2006 (apart from the obvious theatrics by Grosso in Kaiserslautern) it was that Josip (and his mate, Stan Lazaridis) never got onto the pitch in any of our games - both these guys gave their blood, sweat and, all too often, tears when representing our National Team. And, for the trivia buffs out there, Željko Kalac reminded us that Skoko is the only Aussie to have captained a team to the championship win in one of the top professional football leagues in Europe, when he was with Genk, who won the Belgian First Division championship in 2002. Going to miss you Joey, but thanks for the good times.
whiskeymac
Guest
nice one. that greek goal was a cracker. sad his last stint in the HAL maybe on the sidelines, how many games did he play? - but at 34/5 this is likely the fate of many footballers, especially those returning to the HAL it seems. I agree he was a good player, with a solid club and international career with few equals at the moment (captaining winning teams, EPL and stints in Turkey and HAL) and deserves the plaudits. is he likely to coach or remain behind the scenes at Heart? Players with his experience and ability still have a lot to offer the game and its development here.