Son steals spotlight as Danny Vukovic shines for Genk in Belgium
Harley Vukovic is just about as famous as his dad Danny at Belgian side Genk, where the former Sydney FC goalkeeper has taken his late-career form to another level.
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There are few stronger signs that you belong at a club than when your three-year-old son is the fans’ most sought-after mascot.
Harley Vukovic is just about as famous as his dad Danny at Belgian side Genk, where the former Sydney FC goalkeeper has taken his late-career form to another level.
It started about five months ago when Vukovic brought him on to the field after a game, stood in front of the supporters’ bay and showed his little boy how to wave his arms up and down to elicit cheers and chants. Harley soon learnt how to do it all by himself, and in the earlier months of the European season — when it wasn’t as cold and kick-offs were before bed time — it became something of a regular routine.
“It’s amazing … he does his little thing with the fans after the game,” Vukovic said.
“It got to the point where my wife was bringing him and people were stopping them for photos. Now everyone’s asking where he is? They want to see him.
“It’s really nice to have those moments on the pitch with him. He does the chants at home every day.
“We do this one at the end where we sing with the fans and do this little dance, wave your arms. He loves it. It’s nice now he’s starting to understand that dad’s a footballer and this is my job. Harley is healthy and growing and it’s just amazing watching him just being a normal little kid now.
“He’s really clever and cheeky and got a sense of humour as well, he knows how to make us laugh. You think about where we were, I think about the dark times when he was at his worst, and seeing him now is unbelievable.”
It’s been two years since Harley had a successful liver transplant for the life-threatening condition biliary atresia, and life is chugging along nicely for the Vukovic family.
In mid-2017, on the back of form that won him the A-League’s goalkeeper of the year with the Sky Blues, Genk came calling.
By then, in his 30s, Vukovic had already accepted his dream of playing overseas had passed him by, especially given the high-quality medical support in Sydney.
He was pleasantly surprised when the club, for whom Mat Ryan had excelled on loan the season prior, had already found a specialist for Harley in Belgium and he and wife Kristy decided the move felt right.
Some nervous early moments were soon replaced by the kind of form that had him named Genk’s best player of last season.
In some ways Asian Cup camp is a Sydney FC reunion, with Rhyan Grant, Matt Jurman and Alex Gersbach in the squad under their former club boss Graham Arnold, a man Vukovic said had evolved markedly as a coach.
And although he and Mitch Langerak were behind first-choice Ryan in the pecking order in the United Arab Emirates, Vukovic was enjoying every moment of an opportunity that he thought was dead long ago.
“The time between my last camp and getting back into the squad was seven years,” he said.
“When you’re away from the team for that long you start to think it’s not going to happen, and I have to admit there’s times where it hurt watching the Socceroos play.
“It just makes being here now that much more special, and I really appreciate it every time I’m here because I know what it’s like not to be here.”
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Originally published as Son steals spotlight as Danny Vukovic shines for Genk in Belgium
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