From the fields of Canberra, to the bright lights of Europe; the Jadric brothers’ journey to stardom.

 

For some people trading the blistering Canberra winters for gorgeous European summers may sound too good to be true, but for the Jadric brothers that is now their reality as they take their professional careers to new heights overseas.

The young Canberra natives Nikola (21) and Marko (19) Jadric, are currently both playing for Slovenian third tier side FC Drava Ptuj, a club that has a strong focus of youth development, but it was coming up through the youth systems back home in Australia where they gained an ever-growing love and passion for football.

Their journey began in Canberra at Belconnen United and Canberra Croatia, two of Canberra’s most historic and successful football clubs with a renowned passion for the development of their young talented players through their various pathways.

As talented youngsters, both Nikola and Marko quickly gained the passion and drive that you need to play at a very high level. They were often playing against kids who were a few years older than them and much bigger and stronger, but that wasn’t something that worried them.

“[At Belconnen] I wasn’t the only one who was playing up an age group… Once trials came around you are able to quickly find your feet and figure out where you are at,” N. Jadric said.

“At Belconnen it was like being part of a big family, which to me creates that love for football,” M. Jadric said.

“Playing with both Belconnen and Canberra Croatia my week was packed with football… Every day of the week I would have training and the only day off was Friday. That’s where that love stems from and it doesn’t go away after that.”

“Playing with [Canberra] Croatia you get to work on individual traits like your first touch to give you that extra edge, whereas at Belconnen it was all about becoming a team player.”

Throughout their junior years in Canberra, both Nikola and Marko always sought to do more and to put in extra work behind the scenes to further enhance their respective games and to take those next steps as footballers.

“In Canberra you are only training twice a week, and when you compare that to the rest of the world that’s not enough,” N. Jadric said.

“At the end of the day it comes down to what are you doing outside of those hours to improve your game… You need to have that mentality of do I want to be better than everyone else or do I want to be the same as everyone else?”

The dedication and desire to get better led to Nikola having a training session with Croatian side HNK Hajduk Split in 2015 whilst the family was on holiday overseas.

“When I was training [with HNK Hajduk] alongside boys my age, I saw that I was better than some of the players… When we returned to Australia, it was then that I realized that I could potentially make this a career,” he said.

Then the opportunity of a lifetime materialised at 16 years of age for Nikola to have a trial for first-division Croatian side HNK Rijeka. He overcame the difficulties of leaving his home country and his family as well as his inability to speak the language, to sign a deal to play for the Rijeka under-19’s squad for two seasons (2019/20-2020/21) and then got the opportunity to play for HNK Orijent 1919 in the first team for the 2021/22 season.

Marko was fortunate enough to join Nikola at Orijent in the under-19’s squad and relished the opportunity to follow in his brothers’ footsteps in Europe.

“I waited so long for my chance… There was a year where I thought this was going to happen, I want to go overseas,” M. Jadric said.

“Me and my dad put a highlights video together of my season and sent if over to the team, and they liked it so that helped me to get over there.”

“That was a big moment for me, I was really happy… You can’t not be happy when someone tell you to come over to Europe to play football. An opportunity like this only comes along once or twice in your life.”

Nikola and Marko now play alongside each other at FC Drava Ptuj in Slovenia’s third division, a brand-new stage for the brothers to showcase their immense talent and entrenched passion for the beautiful game.