New Melbourne Victory goalkeeper Nathan Coe comes to Australia in the form of his career but is still yet to break through at football’s top level.
New Melbourne Victory goalkeeper Nathan Coe comes to Australia in the form of his career but is still yet to break through at football’s top level.
Victory’s announcement that Coe had joined the club was a shock to most followers of the Hyundai A-League as it had been expected Melbourne head coach Ange Postecoglou would try and sign a defender when veteran striker Danny Allsopp retired last week.
Japan-based defender Jade North had been the name most heavily linked with a move to Melbourne but it was Coe who appeared next to Victory’s Football Operations Manager Paul Trimboli at a press conference on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old Brisbane-born goalkeeper quit Danish Superliga club SonderjyskE at the end of last season in the hope of moving to a bigger club in a league with a higher profile but after having a small operation on his knee, Coe struggled to find the offer he wanted.
For better or worse he has now joined Melbourne Victory and comes to the Hyundai A-League having just completed the most successful two seasons of his career.
Coe played 67 matches while with SonderjyskE, a club based in Haderslev, in the south-west of Denmark.
Jonas Brond Nielsen, a journalist with Danish newspaper Jydske Vestkysten, believes SonderjyskE have struggled to replace the Australian goalkeeper this season.
“SonderjyskE had a brilliant start to the season but it has gone a bit down hill in recent months,” Nielsen explains.
“The club is sitting eighth (on the table).
“In goal they have Norwegian Hakon Opdal or Denmark’s Kenneth Stenild.
“Opdal started as leading goalkeeper but he made some mistakes and Stenild got a chance (and) they have switched a bit in recent games.
“They are OK replacements but not at Coe’s level.”
However, while Coe was a dependable member of SonderjyskE’s side, the club’s regular mid-table status and the Australian’s failure to break through at other Danish sides FC Copenhagen and Randers means he was never rated too highly.
“The big clubs have some talented goalkeepers, who were a bit above Coe’s level. His level is probably a bit better suited to a club above SonderjyskE but not much (higher), that is the reason he could not find a bigger club,” Nielsen argues.
“He was not dominant in the league but a solid goalkeeper, who was among the five to six best (in Denmark).”
One concern for Victory fans could be Nielsen’s take on SonderjyskE’s style of football, which may indicate Coe is not used to playing the ball out of defence, although change did begin during the Australian’s time at the club.
“They were known as a team that played very primitive football; a solid defence, that played on the counter-attack to fast players or kicked the ball up to a big forward, who could hold the ball up,” Nielsen explains.
“In the last 18 months, however, they have developed and play much more attractive football.”
Coe started his European journey 10 years ago when he signed for Inter Milan and despite never playing a senior match in Italy, his football education prompted PSV Eindhoven and then Copenhagen to give him a go.
But having played 67 of the 84 matches of his senior career with Sonderjyske, Coe remains a goalkeeper who has yet to fully prove himself at the top level, which should suit Postecoglou, who will have a player still keen to learn and improve in the hope of getting another shot in Europe.
