Sydney FC’s Mickael Tavares and Western Sydney Wanderers’ Dario Vidosic were almost teammates in Germany

MICKAEL Tavares and Dario Vidosic almost became teammates in Germany, but instead end up opponents in a derby in Sydney years later.

DO NOT USE UNTIL CLEARED BY TELE SPORT Mickael Tavares of Sydney FC and Dario Vidosic of Western Sydney Wanderers ahead of the upcoming Sydney derby at Pirtek Stadium, pic Mark Evans

IT’S the sort of story that maybe only football can tell. Two men, one from France and the other from Queensland, who came within days of being teammates in Germany, and instead end up opponents in a derby in Sydney years later.

Had luck been different – “and had I been a bit more patient,” says Dario Vidosic – then he and Mickael Tavares might well have become as close as Vidosic is with players such as Thomas Broich and Besart Berisha.

But it’s also a story of how the life of a sportsman can change in a heartbeat, when coaches are sacked and players get headstrong, especially when they’re young and impetuous.

Vidosic and Tavares can see that now, as they prepare to face each other in the Sydney derby on Saturday night. Both loved playing in German football some six years ago, with the country’s league and national team both on the rise.

Tavares was at Hamburg under Martin Jol, chasing Champions League football, while Vidosic had played a lead role in Nuremburg’s promotion to the Bundesliga.

“The Bundesliga was great – for me it was the realisation of a dream,” said Tavares. “The German league and the EPL are the best in Europe.

“German football is tough, a combination of physical and technical. The intensity is high too. “Playing against players like Franck Ribery and for a club like Hamburg, I was very happy.”

But then Jol moved on and his replacement signed the Brazilian midfielder Ze Roberto. Stuck on the bench, Tavares wanted game time elsewhere, and at the start of 2010 an offer came to join Vidosic’s Nuremburg on loan.

Mickael Tavares in action for Hamburg.

“We had a new coach come in at Nuremberg at the start of 2010, and he wanted me to stay there,” said Vidosic. “But I hadn’t played as much as I wanted, and I needed game time in a World Cup year.

“It was probably a mistake on my part looking back, but I insisted. So a week before Mickael arrived, I left to go on loan at Duisberg.”

Tavares too laments being impatient on his own part. “Maybe if I’d had more patience I might have stayed longer at Hamburg, because that new coach did not stay long,” he said. “It was different, Nuremburg was a club fighting to stay in the Bundesliga, and Hamburg was trying to get into the Champions League.

“But when you sign for big clubs like Hamburg, you have big players around you and sometimes in front of you. In football sometimes it’s the small details. Things change quickly.”

Vidosic also saw another factor that was making life tougher, for all that playing in a German league getting stronger by the year was improving his own game.

“As foreign players we were unlucky in one sense because there was a real call for young German players to get a go,” he said. “At the 2006 World Cup young players like Messi and Aguero were starring but the German team was a lot older.

“Across the league you saw young players like Toni Kroos and Mesut Ozil given a chance, even at Nuremburg we had five young German players come into the first team.

“But I still developed a huge amount in my time there. The standard was so high, the games were all sold out, if you didn’t perform you knew about it quickly.”

Originally published as Sydney FC’s Mickael Tavares and Western Sydney Wanderers’ Dario Vidosic were almost teammates in Germany