Melbourne Victory fans can breathe a sigh of relief with rampaging winger Marco Rojas completely ruling out a move away from the Hyundai A-League club in the January transfer window.
The 25-year-old “Kiwi Messi” has been in scintillating form in his return season to the A-League, scoring nine goals and setting up another seven for Victory, to be the player with the most score involvements in the competition.
While leaving Victory less than six months into a two-year contract might seem unlikely, Rojas is in the type of form that makes clubs take notice.
But the New Zealand international has no plans to leave the club where he won the Johnny Warren Medal as the Hyundai A-League’s best player in the 2012/13 Season.
When asked on Tuesday if he could absolutely rule out leaving in January, Rojas replied: “100 per cent.”
Rojas is focused on winning silverware with Victory – something he failed to achieve in his previous stint with the club – and he and his team-mates face a critical period in reaching that goal over the next couple of weeks.
Victory host Brisbane Roar on Friday night – the first of three games in eight days that also includes trips to Wellington Phoenix and Perth Glory.
The Phoenix match is Victory’s game in hand on leaders Sydney FC and if Rojas and Co. are to catch the Sky Blues they will need positive results in the upcoming run.
Sydney lead Victory by seven points with just under half the 2016-17 season remaining.
To prepare for the impending travel and short turnarounds between games, Victory’s coaching staff has been protecting the players on the training pitch.
“It’s definitely dropped off and as a footballer, you can probably ask any footballer, and if someone said you could play every three or four days and training would be slightly less then every footballer would take it,” Rojas said.
“We’ll manage the training loads and we’ll be fine for the next few games.”