Recently, former Melbourne Victory shot-stopper Mitchell Langerak made his senior debut for Bundesliga leader Borussia Dortmund in their clash against powerhouse Bayern Munich. Langerak was thrown in the deep end, coming up against some of Europe’s top players, however, he put in a solid performance in the 3-1 victory.
The youngster was only beaten when some lacklustre defending allowed an unmarked Luiz Gustavo to volley the ball into the net. Up the other end, goals to Mats Hummels, Lucas Barrios and Nuri Sahin sealed the win for BVB which enabled the league leaders to open a 13 point gap at the top of the Bundesliga table.
The result is all the more impressive considering it had been almost 20 years since Dortmund last beat Munich away from home. In making his debut, Langerak became just the 11th Australian under the age 25 to make his debut for an overseas club after playing in the A-League.
Langerak broke into the Melbourne Victory line-up last season after first choice goalkeeper Glen Moss encountered bad form. Some impressive performances by the young ‘keeper enabled him to hold the position of number one goalie for the rest of the season.
After the disappointing loss to Sydney in the 2010 grand final, Langerak became a wanted man. Dortmund came with an offer that was at first rejected by the Victory, but after some negotiations, both teams settled on a price and Langerak jetted off to join Die Borussen.
He sat on the bench for 25 league games and played just 90 minuted for the reserve team before making his debut appearance and while lack of game time could hinder many players’ development, Langerak is progressing well under the Dortmund coaches and his impressive debut is a testament to that.
Dortmund’s new number 20 joins a select list of former A-League players who have debuted for foreign clubs while still under the age of 25.
Other Australians who occupy this list include former Adelaide United striker Nathan Burns, former Brisbane Roar midfielder Dario Vidosic and David Carney, formerly of Sydney FC.
While the number is still relatively small, it due to increase soon with the likes of Michael Zullo on the books at FC Utrecht and Matthew Leckie due to move to Borrusia Monchengladbach. Robbie Kruse is another who could expand this list as he is expected to follow Leckie to Germany following Melbourne Victory’s Asian Champions League campaign.
The fact young Australians are attracting interest from big overseas clubs is a credit to the A-League. It shows the domestic league is starting to be taken more seriously by European and Asian sides who are constantly on the look out for rising talent.
The fact they can find suitable up and coming players in the Australian league also shows young Australians that moving overseas at the ages of 14-15 might not be the best idea, especially when you can gain regular first time football at home in a competition that is starting to find its feet.
Hopefully we will see more of Australia’s footballing talent making a name for themselves in the A-League first, before moving on to bigger things. Just look at Mitch Langerak.
Full list of former A-League players who debuted for overseas under the age of 25:
Nathan Burns (Adelaide United – AEK Athens)
Dario Vidosic (Brisbane Roar – FC Nuremberg)
Tommy Oar (Brisbane Roar – FC Utrecht)
Adam Sarota (Brisbane Roar – FC Utrecht)
Luke DeVere (Brisbane Roar – Gyeongnam FC)
Mile Jedinak (Central Coast Mariners – Gençlerbirliği)
Mitchell Langerak (Melbourne Victory – Borussia Dortmund)
Mark Milligan (Newcastle Jets – Shanghai Shenhua)
James Holland (Newcastle Jets – Sparta Rotterdam)
Nikita Rukavytsya (Perth Glory – FC Twente)
David Carney (Sydney FC – Sheffield United)
Phil
Guest
James Holland?
MelbCro
Guest
Viduka won 3 Croatian championships with Dinamo Ned Zelic won Bundesliga with Dortmund and won a title in Georgia with dinamo Tibilisi
punter
Guest
No Melbourne victory fan here. But in my humble opinion, the most impressive young Aussie player to come out of the A-League so far. He has got a strong presence about him. I wish him well.
jmac
Guest
yes and I think big JK won the J-League last year with Nagoya?
davelee
Guest
Kewell won a few Champions League titles with Liverpool. there were a few aussies at nurnberg when they won the german cup a few years back too. scotty mcdonald won a few titles at celtic too. Griffiths bros won the Chinese title in 2009 with beijing guoan
davelee
Guest
*Weidenfeller Interesting stuff and there's plenty more for that list.... Djite as mentioned along with; Nicky Ward at QPR (A-League young player of the year in season 1), Zullo at Utrecht, Beauchamp at Nurnberg, Heffernan at Nurnberg, Zadkovich at Derby, Bulut at Mlada Boleslav, Susak at Unterhaching, Bridge at TIanjin, Theoklitos at Norwich
TomC
Guest
Thats right, but Leijer did play for Norwich on loan. When you stop and think about it, Dortmund took a huge gamble on Langerak. I'm sure there are plenty of promising keepers in Germany. To identify this guy who played one professional season on the other side of the world for a club their supporters would never have heard of, and go after him like they did, shows a lot of courage.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Yes you are spot on about Carney. And, Brett Holman won the Eredivisie with AZ Alkmaar the year before in 08/09.
jmac
Guest
did carney win the Eredivisie with Twente in 09/10?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Josip Skoko won the Belgian 1st Division title with Genk and, I'm sure I read he also captained the side that season - making him the only Aussie to captain the Champions in a major European league. I reckon the most o/s titles may go to Scott Chipperfield with Basel he's won the Swiss League title 5 times: 2001–02, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10 Tony Vidmar also won the SPL with Rangers in 1998-1999 & 1999–2000 Oh ... and I cannot forget my mate KEVIN MUSCAT won the 2002-2003 SPL title with Rangers.
Danny_Mac
Roar Guru
Who was the last Aussie to win a championship outside of the A-League? Particularly in Europe... I don't think Ogenovski won the league title in Korea did he? Only the ACL... I can only think of Cullina at PSV or Craig Moore at Rangers. Other than that... Viduka with Celtic, Zelko Kallic with AC Milan (although it might have been stripped), Robbie Slater with Blackburn (and I think he won one in France), Craig Johnson with Liverpool.
Danny_Mac
Roar Guru
See, and this is the thing... If a good club wants you, they'll come for you... and they'll fork out for you... and if they do, then the club has a vested interest in your development. At the time, somebody told me that Westenfaller (spelling?) was quite injury prone, and that it was highly likely that Langerak would get his chance.
Danny_Mac
Roar Guru
Very impressive effort. I hope that he gets a game in the friendly against Germany coming up. Other than Federici (first choice at Reading) and Schwarzer, there seems to be a lack of quality Aussies playing at the top level as first choices. I'm a big fan of Mitch Langerak, have been fortunate enough to see him play most of his games for the victory (His run coincided with my time in Melbourne), and I was always disappointed that the Victory signed Moss at all, as I never thought they needed him with Mitch coming through... I know that Dean Bouzanis is (or at least was) very highly rated in junior circles in the UK, does anybody know what is or isn't happening with him?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
And, from what I read on a BVB website, the money paid for Mitch Langerak - a player, whose senior football CV was 21 games for MVFC - was the HIGHEST fee ever paid by Dortmund for a reserve GK.
Danny_Mac
Roar Guru
Although to be fair, Leijer never actually played for Fulham's first team. I think that the A-League is much better than we give it credit for (and its been getting a lot of credit over this season), but I think that it is a testament to the quality of the Goalkeepers we've traditionally produced, and of course to Mitch himself. I think that it is worth remembering that it took 3 bids for BVB to get their man. The Victory stood their ground and got what they wanted, but BVB kept coming back. If they are going to that level of effort for (what was believed to be AUD$900,000), they clearly wanted the player, not just a cheap fill in player. Which - sadly - it is difficult to see any other players on the list (or the over 25s who have left, not on the list) who don't fall into this category (cheap, decent players).
Danny_Mac
Roar Guru
Well, Luke DeVere (who actually plays in Korea, not Europe) played for Brisbane this year... :)
TomC
Guest
Not exactly a full list, Tom. Adrian Leijer and Bruce Djite are two more that come to mind, and of course they wound up back in the A-league. Langerak though is quite a unique example. Worth remembering that his last competitive game before beating Bayern Munich at Allianz was for the Victory. Perhaps between the gap between the A-league and the top European leagues is slowly starting to shrink. Long way to go yet, of course.
whiskeymac
Guest
yes it is interesting and Langerak's performance provides some much needed positivity in what for a mariners/arsenal fan was a pretty crummy week otherwise. I agree that it shows the HAl is a good breeding ground which will only get better over time. The mariners have sent players to Sheffield; the Roars links with Utrecht; i suspect this list will continue to grow. But for all the clubs and all the debuts, Langerak's is surely the most impressive. Has it been bettered by a HAL or NSL player? to debut at the top of the buindesliga against Bayern and do well? but how does it compare to those players who decided to by pass the hAL? Williams, mooy, herd, federici, lowy, kilkenny? for perspective it wld be good to compare and contrast the two lists.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Thanks for the article, Tom - that list makes very interesting reading and provides an objective assessment of the A-League. To have 11 players under 25 having the quality to play in Europe after merely 5 seasons (I'm not counting this season since no players from this season can be expected to move abroad until next year) the A-League is on the right path. The A-League is now firmly on the radar of the o/s scouts and the exodus of the best young talent will continue. However, I am confident that the FFA's National Football Curriculum, which is being implemented across all Australia, will produce a continuous supply of technically-gifted footballer that is required to perform at the top levels and the A-League will continue grow in quality and stature.