Tomas Rogic says he has learnt to deal with the increasing hype surrounding his rapid rise to the Socceroos by trying to avoid it all together.
The 19-year-old attacking midfielder earned his first Socceroos cap in a friendly against South Korea two weeks ago, just 18 games into his professional career and has continued to impress in his return to the A-League.
Rogic, who scored the match-winning goal in the Central Mariners’ hoodoo-breaking 2-1 defeat of Brisbane on Sunday, has emerged as a bright light in a Socceroos set-up dominated by players who have served Australia well but now find themselves towards the end of their career.
The rapid rise of former futsal star Rogic prompted national coach Holger Osieck to ask that he not be hyped as he still had a lot of developing to do and there were no guarantees he’d emerge as an international star.
But Rogic has his own approach.
“I try not to take too much of it all (the media attention), because if I was to do something wrong it would just work against me,” Rogic said.
“I just try to read the positives into it. I try to stay away from the media as much as I can … sometimes it is hard.
“I do my best not to take any notice of it and listen to people around me who are important around me like the coaching staff and the senior players.
“They know what they are talking about and they can help me out.”
Rogic is in Osieck’s provisional 25-man squad for the East Asian Football Federation East Asian Cup qualifiers in December in Hong Kong.
The squad gathered in Sydney in Monday as Australia play in the tournament for the first time.
Australia will compete against Chinese-Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong and North Korea in the qualifying tournament from December 1-9.
The EAFF East Asian Cup 2013 will be held in Seoul, South Korea from July 20-28 next year.
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