It’s a sight you thought you’d never see: Sydney FC legend Miloš Ninković in the red and black hoops of cross-town rivals Western Sydney Wanderers.
It’s the bizarre reality fans of both clubs, and neutrals alike, must adjust to after the Serbian midfielder’s sensational off-season move to Wanderland.
Ninković’s Sydney switch is arguably the most controversial club-to-club transfer in Isuzu UTE A-League history – but he’s not the first player to go from hero to villain, by crossing the divide between two bitter rivals.
KEEPUP details some of the more evocative transfers throughout ALM history, which saw players turn out in the colours of their once-rivals.
KRISTIAN SARKIES
Melbourne Victory -> Adelaide United
Kristian Sarkies spent the first two seasons of ALM history at Melbourne Victory. In his final game for Ernie Merrick’s side, he scored arguably the pick of the bunch in his side’s 6-0 Grand Final mauling of Adelaide United.
The following season, Sarkies was lining up in the Reds engine room.
Coined the ‘Original Rivalry’, Victory and Adelaide have been hostile foes since the league’s inception. Sarkies crossed the divide in the heat of it all. He spent the following three seasons at the Reds, playing 33 times before joining Melbourne Heart in 2010-11 as one of the club’s two inaugural signings.
MARCOS FLORES
Adelaide United -> Melbourne Victory
In his only full season at Adelaide United, Argentinian Marcos Flores played 29 games, scored nine goals and capped off a brilliant campaign by winning the Johnny Warren Medal, adjudged the player of the season league-wide.
Flores sealed a move to Chinese Super League club Henan Jianye off the back of his breakout ALM campaign.
The Reds tried to lure Flores back to Adelaide at the conclusion of his contract in China, and in late June, 2012 released a statement detailing “meaningful but ultimately unproductive discussions with his management group”. By early July Flores had signed for Ange Postecoglu’s Melbourne Victory.
HARRY KEWELL
Melbourne Victory -> Melbourne Heart
Nearing the end of an illustrious career highlighted by stints at Leeds United and Liverpool, Socceroos legend Harry Kewell returned home to join Melbourne Victory ahead of the 2011-12 ALM season on a three-year contract.
But after just one season at the club he departed for family reasons. He would return to the ALM after a one-season hiatus, lured by Melbourne Heart boss John Aloisi to wear the red and white in 2013-14.
He would score just two goals for Heart through the 2013-14 season – including a long-range strike in a 4-0 derby win over Victory.
TERRY ANTONIS
Sydney FC -> Western Sydney Wanderers -> Melbourne Victory
Terry Antonis spent six seasons at Sydney FC in the formative years of his career. He’s since gone on to represent the club’s two biggest rivals: Wanderers and Victory.
The midfielder scored five goals in 69 ALM appearances for the Sky Blues – including a late winner against Western Sydney in a 2015 Sydney Derby.
Antonis first joined the Wanderers in late 2016, on loan from Greek club PAOK for the remainder of the 2016-17 ALM season. He played 11 games for the Wanderers in 2016-17 before signing for Victory the following campaign.
It was in his first campaign at Victory when Antonis contributed one of the most memorable individual ALM finals performances of all time.
Going up against the Sky Blues in the 2018 semi-finals, Antonis scored a 94th-minute own goal to send the game to extra time, before making amends with a driving individual run deep into 30 minutes of extra time to bury the winner and send Victory onward to the grand final, and ultimately the 2017-18 Championship.
VEDRAN JANJETOVIC & ANDREW REDMAYNE
Sydney FC <-> Western Sydney Wanderers
After 100 appearances in five seasons for Sydney FC, Vedran Janjetovic became the first player to join the Wanderers from Sydney FC, signing an 18-month contract in December, 2016. The Wanderers subsequently released 27-year-old Andrew Redmayne, who went the other way to link up with the Sky Blues in January, 2017.
Janjetovic first donned the gloves for his new side against Melbourne City on January 6, 2017 before facing the unenviable task of returning to Allianz Stadium to play Sydney FC the following week. He kept a clean sheet in the 0-0 draw, handling the heat of a passionate Sky Blues crowd, from which toy and lolly snakes were hurtled at his goal by supporters making their thoughts of his crosstown switch as clear as can be.
ROY O’DONOVAN
Central Coast Mariners -> Newcastle Jets
At the conclusion of the 2016-17 season, striker Roy O’Donovan departed Central Coast Mariners in favour of a fresh start in Newcastle at the Jets.
The Mariners faithful didn’t take kindly to O’Donovan’s decision to cross F3 Derby divide – and got the opportunity to express their thoughts in Round 1 of the following ALM season when O’Donovan’s Jets travelled to Central Coast Stadium.
O’Donovan was booed every time he was near the ball, with a banner raised behind the goal the Jets shot towards in the first half with O’Donovan’s head pictured on a snake.
O’Donovan went on to score a first half hat-trick in a 5-1 Jets domination.
KOSTA BARBAROUSES
Melbourne Victory -> Sydney FC
Kosta Barbarouses turned heads at the end of the 2018-19 ALM season, opting against extending his stay at Melbourne Victory after a career-high 15 goals in a single season to join Big Blue rivals Sydney FC.
He would go on to spend the following three seasons at the Sky Blues, netting 18 goals in 66 ALM appearances and contributing to Sydney’s 2019-20 Championship.
In November of 2019, Barbarouses met his former side for the first time since his departure in the Big Blue; he scored the winning goal in a 2-1 Sky Blues triumph, electing not to celebrate the decisive strike.
ANDREW NABBOUT
Melbourne Victory -> Melbourne City
He’s now a member of City’s fearsome three-pronged attack – but before his time alongside Jamie Maclaren and Mathew Leckie at the reigning Premiers, Andrew Nabbout was once a Melbourne Victory star.
Nabbout had two stints at the club, departing Victory at the conclusion of the 2019-20 season after scoring eight goals in 22 games for the team which finished one spot off the bottom of the table.
In the following two seasons he reached back-to-back Grand Finals with City, winning consecutive Premierships and the 2020-21 Championship.
City bossed their local rivals that season, winning two Melbourne Derbies by a combined score of 13-0, and drawing the third 1-1. In City’s 7-0 Derby win in April, 2021 Nabbout scored one of the goals of the season, whipping the ball into the top-right corner off the outside of his right boot from a tight angle.
ALEXANDER BAUMJOHANN
Western Sydney Wanderers -> Sydney FC
At the conclusion of the 2018-19 season, German attacking midfielder Alexander Baumjohann joined Sydney FC after accruing 20 appearances for the Wanderers in the prior campaign.
When the club announced his arrival, Baumjohann noted: “It didn’t take me long to see that Sydney FC is the biggest club in the country by far and in all aspects of the game.”
He would go on to make 53 appearances for Sydney FC across the following two seasons, contributing to the championship success of 2019-20.
MILOŠ NINKOVIĆ
Sydney FC -> Western Sydney Wanderers
The latest player to join one Sydney Derby rival from the other – and the most high profile of them all: Serbian midfielder, two-time Johnny Warren Medalist and three-time ALM champion Ninković is staying in Sydney for the 2022-23 season as a Wanderer, not a Sky Blue.
Ninković created an abundance of memories for Sydney FC fans throughout seven illustrious seasons at the club; now, they’ll have to get used to the prospect of seeing one of the club’s all-time greats in red and black.
