Western Sydney Wanderers forward Nicolas Milanovic has expressed his desire to break into the Subway Socceroos fold this season, after scoring the first hat-trick of his professional career in a 4-1 win over Newcastle Jets on Friday night.
The 22-year-old produced the match-winning display at CommBank Stadium on the same day Socceroos head coach Tony Popovic announced his squad for November’s World Cup qualifiers against Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Seven Isuzu UTE A-League players were picked in Popovic’s 26-player squad announced on Friday, with the recently-appointed Australia boss continuing to show a willingness to reward Australian-based players for their domestic form with international call-ups.
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Speaking to Network 10 after the 4-1 win, Milanovic said he doesn’t feel ready to break into the international fold just yet, but has the confidence and self-belief to make the dream a reality with a stretch of consistent form with the Wanderers this season.
“Hopefully I’m on the radar – I’d like to think so,” Milanovic told Network 10, with Friday night’s match ball tucked firmly under his arm.
“But no, that will come when I’m ready. Hopefully, I can show the new coach that I’m up for it.
“That’s definitely one of my goals for the year, I’ve said it already. This year, hopefully I can get into that squad.
“It’s something I’ve always told my family, ever since I wasn’t playing (and) I was a bench player at Western United, trying to (find) my feet. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do: play for the Socceroos. Even as a kid. And I don’t think I’m there yet, but it’s definitely one of my future goals.”
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Milanovic has four goals and one assist to his name through four rounds of the 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League season, with his performance against Newcastle helping the Wanderers to end a six-game losing streak at CommBank Stadium in the club’s first win of the campaign.
It’s early days in the 22-year-old’s second full season at Western Sydney but after bagging nine goals in 2023-24 – his career-best total to date – Milanovic is targeting an increased output under new head coach Alen Stajcic.
“I think last year helped, I felt like I grew into myself last year and showed myself that I can do it here,” he said.
“And off the back of that it’s going out there against my defender and saying: ‘Today is my day’. That was it today, and luckily I got three… that’s one moment I’ll never forget, for sure.”
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The Isuzu UTE A-League is set for a one-week hiatus at the end of Round 4 for the international window and the Socceroos’ two World Cup qualifiers against Saudi Arabia at AAMI Park in Melbourne on Thursday, November 14 and an away meeting with Bahrain on Wednesday, November 20 (5.15am AEDT).
Milanovic’s Western Sydney teammate Brandon Borrello is one of the seven Isuzu UTE A-League stars selected along with Aziz Behich, Hayden Matthews, Anthony Caceres, Nishan Velupillay, Rhyan Grant and Jason Geria.
After the international break is Unite Round in the A-Leagues, where the Wanderers will face off with rivals Sydney FC in the second Sydney Derby of the season to date.
Milanovic is confident his side can defeat the Sky Blues at Allianz Stadium to keep momentum rolling following the 4-1 win over Newcastle.
“I think this is a big thing for the team, we really needed this win – especially at home, I think we haven’t won here since January,” Milanovic said.
“We spoke about it before the game, we didn’t really want to bring it into the changerooms that we hadn’t won but it was something we needed to do and luckily today it just felt perfect for us.
“We’ve proved we can go to Allianz (Stadium) and do a job. I really believe we can. The first loss hurt because it was Round 1 and we felt like we were there in the game and it just didn’t happen for us.”
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MATCH REPORT: Hat-trick hero inspires Wanderers to drought-breaking home win
