Perth Glory striker Branko Jelic has issued an ominous warning to the rest of the competition, saying he can only get better as his fitness improves.
Fresh from scoring both goals in Perth’s 2-1 win over Melbourne last round, Jelic says his conditioning is improving day by day after an interrupted pre-season that saw him only arrive in Western Australia just weeks before the proper competition started.
Jelic may have been formally signed in May, but the Serbian national endured a two-month wait in Europe for his Australian work visa to clear, forcing him to miss most of the pre-season with his new Glory team-mates.
But, with three starts behind him, the 32-year-old is quickly catching up as he and fellow recruit Mile Sterjovski start developing a promising strike partnership for the Perth side that featured the pair combining for both goals last weekend.
“I’m maybe about 70 percent,” Jelic candidly admits as he prepares to take on Central Coast at Canberra Stadium on Friday night.
“So, I also have space to improve and my form, it’s also about 70 percent.”
“(But) with Mile, I have good communication on the field and it’s good for our team.”
“Mile played in Europe and we understand each other very well (but) I think we have a lot of room to improve our play, because we’ve played just four games together,” he said.
Amid all the speculation last May surrounding big names like Alvaro Recoba and Kevin Phillips heading to ME Bank Stadium, Jelic’s signing was somewhat obscured despite the striker coming directly from the Bundesliga’s Energie Cottbus to Australia.
Prior to playing in Germany, he’d also scored 41 goals in 72 matches for Beijing Guoan and Xiamen Lanshi before scoring six times in 31 appearances for Cottbus, including a memorable double in a win against Bayern Munich last March.
At the time, the loss was just Bayern’s second defeat in 2008-09, but unfortunately the valuable points were not enough to keep Cottbus in the top flight as it lost a relegation play-off to Nurnberg and dropped to Bundesliga 2.
Having seen his club relegated, Jelic said coming to Australia proved more of a family decision than a footballing one.
“Because my wife and my children have Australian passports, I want my family to stay here and the kids go to school here,” Jelic said.
“Now, I am in the age when I have to start thinking about my family, so I’m looking to do (the best I can with Perth).”
“(So) it was most important to score the first goal for my new club and I did that and it’s good for my confidence.”
“But, having said that, I already know my ability, so I know I can score, it’s only a matter of when.”
“It’s nice because that happened against the champion of Australia and it was an important game for my club and I’m very satisfied, but it’s behind me.”
“In the present, I’m looking forward to this next game and I hope we can take some points and we keep going on our way.”
