Nikola Markovski

For Macedonian born and Melbourne resident Nikola Markovski the road to playing in Victorian football has been a part of a greater journey that has seen him constantly challenged to be the best player he can be.  His journey has seen him play with a number of Victorian clubs while establishing a Football Academy focused on skills training.  Sit back and enjoy Nikola’s take on life in football.

Football is:

So, tell me how you started in football.

Nikola Markovski:

With football, I was pretty young and I started as a six year old with a local club. The biggest club in my city is FK Pelister who have produced a lot of good players, who have gone on to play in many of the top leagues in Europe. I start like a goalkeeper. My father was goalkeeper for 20 years and I wanted to follow his footsteps playing in this position but one day, I remember the coach played me as a striker. I did very well and from that moment, I realised that my body structure is not suited to play as a goalkeeper. So, I start playing as a striker.

Football is:

How old were you when you became a striker?

Nikola Markovski:

I was nine years old.

Football is:

So, from the age of nine, you were playing football. When you were at school, did you have another career in mind or was it always football?

Nikola Markovski:

Outside of football I did one and a half years of traditional Japanese Judo for fitness. I was lucky to get an opportunity at the age of 16 to get in the senior system. That's pretty early and I had one trial in the Macedonian, Albanian team. It’s name Baskimi and I remember their coach called me up for trials. I was there training for a couple days and then I was signed. The club were looking to a UEFA spot and the coach pulled me aside and said, ‘Listen, you are pretty young. You’re lucky to be part of the squad but don't expect that you will start because we have a lot of players with experience, so enjoy the experience and learn from it.’ I trained a couple extra weeks with them and they sent me into their second division. Before I got an opportunity with the senior squad, I was in the Junior League and became one of the top ten strikers in all country.

After that, I went to the Academy Hristov. This lead to me playing in the Macedonian second division for two to three years, where I developed myself as a player and got the opportunity to go play in Greece and Italy. During my first year, I struggled with some visa issues. As Macedonia is not part of the European Union, the cost of the visa was expensive. So unless you were a really, really good player, the club wouldn’t give you a spot. While I was waiting for my visa to be confirmed, I didn't have the right to play for six months and after that when I got my visa, there was only six or seven games left in the season. I scored a couple of goals and next season I start from the beginning. So that year I won the MVP award six times and was the top striker in the league.

Football is:

So, how old were you at this time?

Nikola Markovski:

23. Yeah, at 23 years old, I had played 26 games and scored 23 goals.

It was a good journey. I won all the awards that year and had the opportunity to go higher. So, I progressed to the second Greek second division. It was a good opportunity for me. I had a trial in Albania with Skënderbeu - they played against Dinamo Zagreb. I left after six weeks due to issues with my agent and decided to return to play in the Macedonia First League with my first club, FK Pelister, I played there for one year.

I’ve had mixed success with managers and this has affected my career. If you have a good manager but you are an average player, you can be successful. If you’re a good player with bad management, you can finish playing Division Two. I know a lot of average players who have done very well with a good agent. So, there is good luck, there is a bit of luck.

When I returned to Macedonia, I met my wife. She came for holiday and everything's changed after that.

Football is:

When you spend all that time at a fairly young age away from home and you're playing in a different system to what you play at home, how did it affect you when you went back to Macedonia?

Nikola Markovski:

When I came back home and I start playing in the seniors with FK PeIister, it was a dream come true. I always dreamed to be part of this squad and part of the club my father played for. So, that means a lot to me. You can play everywhere in the world but at FK Pelister, I felt the passion from the supporters. I must mention the supporters, they are called the Čkembari – they are an active supporter group and they have the biggest crowd in Macedonia. So, as a player, it's unfair to give them less than a hundred percent. Last year they played against Wisła Krakówin Poland in the UEFA Champions League. I have friend at the club and when I go back now for a holiday, I'll go there and train with them.

Football is:

So, how did you end up in Australia?

Nikola Markovski:

My wife is born here. She's Australian and she misses her family. Macedonia is a little bit of a poorer country with a lot of political problems. My wife felt uncomfortable at times and I said okay, we should move to Australia and I’ll try to find somewhere to play. Maybe it's going to change everything and that's why we decided to relocate to Australia. Honestly, when I arrived I was little bit shocked – I didn't have connections, nothing, and one member of my family gave me a contact at Melbourne Victory. I sent my CV there. They return my email and said that I would cost them a visa spot and that as I wasn’t a marquee player, they couldn’t use that spot on me. They said that if I got my permanent residency that maybe they could give me a chance to trial. But by the time I got my permanent residency, three years had passed. It was a really long time. I was so confused and then a friend come up to me and said, ‘Look, not far from your house is a club. So, why don’t you go try there? They play NPL.’ I didn't know what NPL was and when I got there, it was Green Gully SC. When I walked in it had a pretty good setup and I fell in love with the club because they had the same colors as my old club, white and green. And I spoke with the coach and he gave me a chance. I spoke with Roddy Vargas. I met him there. A couple of days later we played a friendly against Port Melbourne, and I scored a hat-trick and next morning, I was signed.

Football is:

So, when you were dating your wife, how difficult was it for her to understand what you do?

Nikola Markovski:

She understands. I really appreciate my wife because she supports me in every moment, what I'm doing and she said ‘Look, it’s better to see you happy and for you to do something that you want to do and do well and I will support you. It doesn't matter where football takes you. I'm with you’ and she said she would give her full support to me. I respect my wife and that's why I married her because she understands me a lot and she motivates me. She has always said she believes in me. That support is a big part of the marriage because if you have someone who doesn’t understand you and what you’re doing – especially playing soccer – it's very hard to perform and be a good player, because mentally you’re not focused on the game. You're going to be focused on other stuff. As a couple, you need to have a good understanding about what is important to both of you. Otherwise, it just won’t work.

Football is:

What do you think is the biggest sacrifice that you've had to make?

Nikola Markovski:

I had an opportunity to work with good company full time at the airport but I sacrificed that job just to stay focused on football. I can’t live without soccer. My wife has also sacrificed the time we spend together. For example, we don’t always spend our holidays together because in summer my pre-season starts and that will usually mean we can’t go away together.

Football is:

So, after you joined Gully, you then moved to Northcote City. How would you compare playing in the NPL to your experience playing overseas?

Nikola Markovski:

Honestly, the NPL is nearly about ten years away from getting closer to the highest league in Europe, even the third division in Europe is more professional. It's full-time. Here you must change the system of training. They must train more and more of the teams need to be full-time. Some of players in the NPL get frustrated when they come to a training session tired and can’t perform very well. That's the biggest difference between Australia and Europe. In Europe, for example, if you are in the third or second division you still get a big crowd to the game. The atmosphere is very different and you feel pressure from the crowd. It's a very different system and when I came here to play in the NPL, I was confident I could do well. All games are like a training session because there are not many supporters at a match. I enjoy myself, no pressure, train three times a week, I think it is a big difference.

Football is:

Tell me a little bit about how you ended up at Altona Magic, especially during 2016?

Nikola Markovski:

I met Igor the president of the club and he ran through the history of the club and where they hoped to be in a couple of years. Honestly, Magic is one of the clubs that could win the Premier League competition and in time, they can do really, really well. Being a club with a Macedonian heritage, I decided to try and help these guys to get promotion from State League to NPL. Some people asked me why I didn’t join Preston who are also a Macedonian club. I felt Magic was a good club with good people. If you’re a player, you can’t be with two clubs you must go left or right. That's why I chose Magic. It has a good bunch of players and a good team spirit.

The club has experienced players who have come from teams across the NPL.  We’ve done very well. We won the championship. We won the grand final. The atmosphere at the club was different because after a training session, you stayed behind, you would have a chat with your teammates and fans. Also, you can train in your own language.

Football is:

Moving forward, what are you focused on outside of playing?

Nikola Markovski:

In 2015, I opened my Academy called the MVP Academy. I started with six to seven kids. The kids are given an award for their achievement. When I give them an award, that's one motivation for every kid to work hard. For my academy I start doing something not many coaches do here. A lot of our focus is on co-ordination, ball work and technique. I teach the kids how to play football – less focus on fitness, more on intelligence. So, they are understanding the game because playing soccer is not just about being fit. You need to be very smart and like I said, you need to understand the game and learn to read the game. For me, it's more important to be tactical and intelligent than fit. You can see in the Serie A, the Italians, they play until the age of 39 years old, 40, 41. Not because they are fit like a 23-year-old but because they're smart. They know how to play football and that's my inspiration. I start doing agility stuff, also one-on-one sessions, like games to start working your mind, extra work with your mind.

Football is:

So, now your next three months, you're going to head overseas again and you were telling me that’s to get your B license. So, what's involved in achieving that for you and why do you feel going overseas for that is going to help you?

Nikola Markovski:

My first goal is to go overseas and try to then set up a tournament for my academy so these kids get that professional experience and to hit some clubs hard. This will give kids an opportunity to see what level they are because a lot of the kids here, they don’t know, especially what's happening in Europe. That's why I Iike to set up that trial to go for a couple of weeks there to be part of the biggest academy, play friendlies and gain experience playing in a different system, I want to get my B-license as it will help me to improve myself as a coach, to become a coach, to take one team, build something from their experience to bring here in Australia. So, not many clubs to have that one. So, that’s my goal.

Football is:

Do you think that will be part of what's needed for kids here to actually understand how good they have to be if I they want to play overseas?

Nikola Markovski:

That's my main objective, to see the level of the kids, to see if they can play there or not or we stay here and work more and try to go to Asia, or somewhere with a similar system to ours because in Europe, the level is higher. If you want to be a professional football player, that's the place to be. I remember Jacob Elipoulos from Northcote City, when we trained together, he play on my side and always I told him ‘Man, you are a good player. Don't waste your time here’. At every training session I’d tell him to find an agent and go to Europe.

Football is:

You've had the experience of relocating into Europe to play your sport. You've had the experience of coming to Australia, moving your whole life here. For a young player that's growing up in Australia that then has to go overseas to Europe with no family maybe and no connections there, what do you think is the biggest challenge for them when they relocate?

Nikola Markovski:

The biggest challenge for the kid will be in his mind. They have to remember why they have chosen to move away from home: ‘I must do this if I want to play professionally, if I would like my dream to come true, then I must do this’. It’s about your mental strength. They have to believe that it doesn't matter what's going to happen. In some countries, you can’t eat the food, you can't understand the language but this is a hard industry. If you don’t like to play professionally, you can stay at home. No one's pushing, no one's there but in order for the really, really big stars to become big, they will gamble everything for their dream. That’s the mental preparation to go there and it makes you stay there.

Football is:

How much of it, especially when you're younger, do you think is the actual physical ability versus the mental ability?

Nikola Markovski:

80% is mental and 20% is physical. The mind makes up a large portion of how successful you are in anything in life. A strong mind will drive success. Sometimes a good player will give up because mentally they don’t have the strength to persevere and work through the hard games or training session. But then the guy who’s behind him who may not be as talented but who never gives up, ends up going on to be successful. That's reality. You set up your mentality like a soldier. That mentality is a successful mentality. If you’re thinking always in your mind ‘I'm too good, I'm too good’, you go nowhere.

Football is:

Do you think the opportunity for young players in Australia is better focused on heading overseas or for them to try and break into the A-League?

Nikola Markovski:

I think before they go overseas, they need to test themselves in the A-League or play against them and if they can play, then can try Europe or Asia. If they can't, that means they still are not ready for that challenge

Football is:

What do you think is the biggest failings of the system we have here in Australia?

Nikola Markovski:

Not invest in youth system and relegation promotion system, including the A-League. Australia needs a strong second division because at the moment it’s not enough spot for pro players and coaches with an A Licence, Also, there’s a need to change the visa rules to be not less then 4 players per team, so the competition is stronger!

Football is:

Nikola, finish this sentence football is…?

Nikola Markovski:

For me, football is more than a game, it’s my life. So, you choose to be different from anyone else, you choose to be something who not many people can be. If you’re a team player, you’ll succeed. If you’re selfish, if you don’t like to share things with the people and you’re too arrogant and don’t know how to be good in a group, you can’t be in this industry. You become one with football, or you stay away.

Susanne Ellens

What would it be like to be a student growing up in the Netherlands with a passion for football and technology, but ultimately know you will eventually need to make a decision to follow one path or the other? Then, twist this a little and consider for one moment how would it feel if you found a way to combine both your passions and somehow find yourself not only travelling to Melbourne to study, but then becoming part of a FIFA research project? For Susanne Ellens, studying at Victoria University has offered the perfect combination of these two worlds, but also a chance to experience the different football cultures in this city close up.

Football is:

Okay, Suus, tell me how your love of football started.

Susanne Ellens:

Well, my family is pretty sporty. So, if we're at home and there's something sport-related on TV - it doesn't really matter what sport - we're always watching it. Although, we are watching soccer most of the time. I’ve had soccer in my life since I was a child, my dad likes to watch the team of his city play where he grew up and my oldest brother was hanging out with my cousins who were mad soccer supporters. So, when I grew up, I was like ‘Yeah, this is fun! I want to hang out with you guys.’ In Europe, soccer is pretty big and everyone watches it together. You will get a whole family and a whole neighbourhood together to watch it. When Holland played in the World Cup for example, people would put a screen outside on the streets or we invited all of our friends to our house to see Holland play. So, that's actually how it started, as a kind of social thing to watch it with others.

Football is:

So, did you ever play it?

Susanne Ellens:

I play it socially. So, not with a club just with friends. Whenever we were free we’d say ‘Hey, let's do something, let's grab a soccer ball and go outside’ and you would play soccer with all your mates from your whole street.

Football is:

So, growing up where sport is such a part of your lifestyle, how did you find a way of combining sport and your passion for soccer into what you're doing as an adult?

Susanne Ellens:

That’s a good question actually. Soccer’s always been a part of my life. At high school, I was just watching it and playing socially. Then when I got to university, I discovered that I could combine my love for technology and sport, so I started investigating sport-related things. One of my lecturers at uni saw I liked this and got me involved in research in wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis. Since then I never stopped with sport research and that got me into my current research in soccer and technology software.

Football is:

So, when you went to uni, was your intention to do analysis in sport?

Susanne Ellens:

During my Bachelor’s in human kinetic technology, there were three different main areas - sports science, rehabilitation (ortheses and prosthesis, related things) and technology that was everything from building 3D printers to programming things. At first I really liked the technology part. I built a 3D printer with my dad and programmed lots of small things. And then my world changed when I discovered that a lot of technology is involved in sports science research. So, I could combine two of my favorite things.

Football is:

So, you’re still in the Netherlands at that stage when you started really focusing on your one direction with sports science and technology, at what point did the link with FIFA develop?

Susanne Ellens:

That was in a bit of a later stage. At first I was in Holland. Then I came to Victoria University. So, from Holland, I came to Melbourne and I firstly started in Australian football. Well, as I'm a Dutch person, I didn’t know a lot about Australian football. So, I needed to analyse the technique of Australian football. I had no idea what's good, what's not good, what type of movements they do.

Football is:

When you first started working within AFL, as somebody who doesn't know the sport, how did you view it? What did you think about it from the perspective that you were working from?

Susanne Ellens:

It was so weird. I never ever saw a game of Australian football before I came here. I read some articles about it and then I came here and I thought it looked like rugby but it’s different. It's kind of like soccer as well, but it’s different. And the oval-shaped ball, when I saw it, I concluded that there was a lot of technique involved in kicking, same as with soccer. I always think that rugby is more of a power sport. You have the ball and you go, go, go and also need technique of course, but it's slightly different. That's pretty cool. That’s also where I started my research about kicking in AFL because it's an important aspect of Australian football, the only way to score a goal and most common form of passing a ball. 

Football is:

So, how did you get into this?

Susanne Ellens:

It was during a day at Etihad Stadium. It was with FIFA and by this time, I was doing Australian football stuff. But my supervisor needed people who had knowledge about the technology they were going to use that day so he asked me to help, So, I was there and I helped them and then at the end, they asked me to write some code scripts. They liked what I did and wanted to keep me at this uni.  Afterwards, I went back home to finish my Bachelor’s degree and by then I was not really sure if I was coming back. My supervisor arranged a scholarship for me when I was still home. I was like ‘Oh, okay, I really like it’ and I want to keep working in this space, soccer. I always loved soccer and I know soccer. I know what type of movements they do, how the game is played and that's actually how I ended up there. So, it all started at Etihad.

Football is:

When you became first immersed in that world, were you starting to already do comparisons to the different kicking techniques in the two sports?

Susanne Ellens:

Yeah. It was because in Australian football, you have an oval-shaped ball so as soon as you drop it, you mostly kick with the top of the foot. So, when I was investigating that in high-speed videos, you see the people kicking in really detailed vision. In soccer it's mostly with the side of foot that you’re using and the movement you're making with the legs is very different. Then I was also looking at the difference in the build of a player. In AFL, the players are more muscular and are really tall. Soccer people are actually mostly average height if you compare them with AFL players. Then I realized it makes sense that AFL people are usually tall, they are running a lot, so being tall helps with covering long distances. Whereas soccer is married to fast movement, quickly turning and stuff like that. So, they’re more responsive and shorter.  

Football is:

So, when you got to the point where your supervisors who work with FIFA asked you to work with them. What changes to your research did you have to do to apply it to soccer?

Susanne Ellens:

In AFL, I was creating a classification system to classify the movements of a player during a game and I had an INU unit - that's a small device with an accelerometer and a gyroscope they were wore during a game. Once it was over, they gave it to the coach and the coach runs my software and he can see, oh, they did 60 kicks, 12 drop punts, and what distance they ran.

This technology can also be applied to soccer. So, when the FIFA opportunities arose I thought I can do this in soccer as well, only the movements are way different. So, I needed to adjust my codes a bit and get new data for it so then at the end, the coach can run it as well to track, say, a headshot, inner foot kick, outer foot kick, tackle, stuff like that.

Football is:

So, they're wearing little pads when you're doing the‑?

Susanne Ellens:

It's only a small device, like this big, like I would say a 50 cent piece, and it's on the side of their leg.

Football is:

Okay. So, just from that, they can -- wow.

Susanne Ellens:

Yep. And then they're just running the whole game so at the end the coach can get an indication of what you're doing. For example, say we're both standing in the same position - we’re talking soccer now, I know more about soccer - and you’re in attack and he sees you make a lot of assists and only half the number of assists here and he’s like, okay, that explains why the ball is always more on this side because he barely makes opportunities elsewhere. So, then he can speak to you. He would say we need to get the ball more to this guy, or you need to train on your assists. So, that's a different part of how applies to soccer. They currently do it based on sight, so this gives them more in-depth views.

Football is:

So, as someone who has loved the game your whole life, when you watch a game now, how do you perceive it? Are you watching it with the technical head or can you still watch the game in the grandstand and enjoy it?

Susanne Ellens:

Oh, sometimes, I'm just watching it and then I guess I do lots of placement analysis, so where the players are on the field. Then I see a game and I see that the players are screwing up their whole position. All the people next to me are like, ‘What are you looking at? They’re just playing right.’ I say ‘No, no. Look at the red dot, look at the red dot.’ It's like oh, yeah, that's pretty stupid actually. Yeah, everyone's almost focusing on the place where the ball is and then your head follows the ball. But I’m always watching the whole field, taking more of a broad overview.

Football is:

If you were embedded in a professional club, what do you think is the advantage of having somebody that's got this technology?

                                                             

Susanne Ellens:

The things that people do are not always visible to the human eye. As soon as you apply technology to it, it allows you capture the movements of people playing on a field. They're doing lots of stuff that coaches will probably miss or will never see but as soon as you implement data and technology into it to monitor the people, or videotape them during the whole game or analyze more in detail, you will see way more than a coach normally sees. So, actually I'm broadening the view of the coach, making it easier to understand the players, and what’s going on.

Football is:

Yeah, I suppose it informs them postgame of where the deficiencies are‑

Susanne Ellens:

Exactly! A coach can only look at one player at a same time. You can’t watch everyone on the field. That’s way too much to ask, just for one person. So, then you can see at the end what the players were doing. In the best-case scenario, the coach can go to his computer post-game and print out kind a spreadsheet or whatever and can thoroughly analyse what's going on with his players.

 

Football is:

So, when you were choosing universities to study at, how did you end up here?

Susanne Ellens:

I was in Holland. Second year of uni I think, I went to do an internship abroad, so I went to Calgary in Canada. This had nothing to do with technology at the time. I went back home and then the next year I could do an internship again. But I thought, I already went to Canada where there was a great human performance research lab. So I wanted to do my next internship at a good uni as well, but this time I wanted to do research into something sport-related with a technological focus. So, I went online. I ended up at this university in the Institute of Sport and Exercise Science. It was really appealing but it was only a three-month internship. So, I went to my supervisors back home and I asked them if it would be possible to do one year over there and make it an extensive internship instead of just doing three months? I was the first person ever who asked for this at my university so it took a long time to convince them and arrange everything. But In the end, here I am!

Football is:

When you got here, you committed to 12 months, to a country -- you’d never been to Australia?

Susanne Ellens:

No. I've never been this far from home. It's literally -- if you drill a hole through the earth -- I look it up one time online -- you would pop out more or less in Spain. So, it's almost on other side of the world.

Football is:

Has being away from your parents and your family been difficult? After all you can’t just jump on a one hour flight to get home…

Susanne Ellens:

It's actually alright. They are far, of course. Sometimes you really miss them. It’s like, oh, I just really want to see them but it's alright. I've got lots of friends here so it feels like family. They are like family for me and I Skype with my parents every Friday before I go to the gym, because that’s a convenient time for Europe that's like, well, 8.00pm back home. Then I will call my parents on the bike with a camera in front of me on my bike. Then they see me and we talk the whole way about what we’ve done with our weeks and so.

Football is:

Yeah, so, technology is part of everything you do?

Susanne Ellens:

Yes, yes. It is. They call me a tech nerd here at uni, because as soon as there is a tech-related issue, it’s like ‘Suus, Suus, do you know how to do this on the computer?’ or ‘Do you have this cable? What do I need to do with this?’ So I usually help out.

Football is:

What was the biggest challenge when you got here as far as settling in and the culture and I guess your knowledge or your expectation of the country?

Susanne Ellens:

The biggest challenge? I think it was keep on schedule with my university back home. I was doing lots of stuff here and then I also needed to do things for my thesis back home, and I had other reports I needed to complete as well. So sometimes I lost track of what I was writing for reports back home and what I was doing here. Luckily my friends back home were a great help and reminded me of almost everything! So, that was I think the biggest challenge, to keep everything sorted.

Football is:

Now that you’ve well and truly settled in here and doing your research, where do you hope it will take you?

Susanne Ellens:

Europe, and ideally a soccer club there because they invest a lot of money in sports science. So, for example, Barcelona is really big with sport science and I’d love to work at Ajax, it’s the club I follow back home. So I would love to work with one of them and help them improve their soccer skills where possible, and make analysing it much easier.

Football is:

Last question which is my standard: Finish this sentence, football is…?

Susanne Ellens:

Football is. Okay, now I need to say it in proper English. Soccer is the link for me between my love for sports and technology. It lets me combine my love for sport and technology and maybe even bring some new technology into the sports world. Yeah, that’s best thing that’s happened to me actually, to get into this world!