Wanderers visit with fans at The Coffee Emporium in Stanhope Village
After Josep Gombau’s sacking at the end of last season, Western Sydney Wanderers star Vedran Janjetovic says new coach Markus Babbel is wasting no time in making his presence felt
Rouse Hill
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rouse Hill. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The Western Sydney Wanderers took some time out from their pre-season training to meet fans at The Coffee Emporium at Stanhope Village last week.
Fans lined up for more than an hour as Wanderers stars including Brendan Hamill and Vedran Janjetovic signed merchandise, took photos and answered questions about the coming A-League season.
“You always want to give back to everyone,” Janjetovic said.
“We’re in a privileged position and the kids look up to us and I try to be the best role model I can be every day and obviously they feed off that.
“So if I can give them a little bit of hope towards a dream that they have then that’s my job done.”
With Croatia bowing out to France 4-2 in the World Cup final on Monday morning, the Croatian-born goalkeeper said he was proud Croatia made it as far as they did on the world stage.
“It’s exciting for the country,” he said. “We (went) further than everyone probably thought we would get.
“It’s exciting just to see us be able to go that far and put our country on the map, so to speak.
“It’s been a fun ride.”
After a disappointing 2017-18 A-League season saw former head coach Josep Gombau sacked, Janjetovic said new coach Markus Babbel has already had an effect on the playing squad.
“He’s very tough so I think it’s going to make us a lot more resilient than last year,” he said.
“It’s just about getting a lot of training under our belts and gelling together as a team.”
The Wanderers kick off their 2018-19 A-League season against Perth in October.