By Vince Rugari
There were few Australians flying higher in men’s football than Ajdin Hrustic two years ago. He won the 2021-22 Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt, scoring a penalty in the decisive shootout to become the first Australian to lift a UEFA trophy since Harry Kewell in 2005, and then emerged from the Socceroos’ torturous qualification campaign as arguably the team’s most valuable player, primed to light up the World Cup in Qatar.
Then he did his ankle, and we’ve hardly seen him since.
“It was a tough period, I’m not going to lie,” Hrustic told this masthead. “But everything happens for a reason.”
Hrustic was this week handed his first call-up in almost a year for Australia’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Lebanon in Sydney and Canberra. And boy, have they missed him. The 27-year-old was exactly the kind of creative fulcrum the Socceroos missed at the Asian Cup, but wasn’t picked by coach Graham Arnold because he had been completely frozen out at his former club, Italian top-flight side Hellas Verona.
Having now re-established himself at Dutch outfit Heracles Almelo after 10 months without playing a single minute for club or country, Hrustic is ready to talk about what happened, how brutally Verona turned on him so soon after making him one of the club’s highest-paid players, and his disappointment that his Socceroos return hasn’t come earlier.
To do that, we have to go back to a month before the World Cup, when Hrustic landed awkwardly on his left ankle in a match for Verona against AC Milan. He tried to grimace through the pain in Qatar, forgoing surgery to give himself a chance of playing – but with his mobility clearly limited, and his training output restricted, he saw just 59 minutes off the bench and was a shadow of the player who had starred for Australia in the months prior.
Ajdin Hrustic’s career is back on track after a nightmare year in Italy with Hellas Verona.Credit: Getty
When he returned to Italy, he knew it wasn’t right.
“I tried to just bite through it and be a man, like they say: do it for the team and everything. But I struggled,” Hrustic said. He felt serious discomfort in his ankle at training the day before Verona played Torino.
“They put me in for five minutes. No idea why. They kept asking me on the bench like, ‘Are you right? Can you play?’ And then they ended up playing me. Something happened in the game, I put my body between the ball and the player, I felt it again ... I really tried, gave 100 per cent, and I just couldn’t.”
Surgery it had to be. Hrustic made a successful return four months later, and then turned out for the Socceroos in their 2-0 friendly defeat to Argentina in China last June. Lionel Scaloni singled him out for praise as Australia’s best player. “That was big, especially after coming back from such an injury, going through so much, and going through it alone,” Hrustic said. These days his ankle feels so good he doesn’t even tape it up any more.
Ajdin Hrustic peels away from Argentina’s Lionel Messi during Australia’s friendly in Beijing last year.Credit: Getty
But that’s when the problems really started. At the start of pre-season, Verona told him they could no longer afford to carry his salary on their books and wanted to move him on, despite having just brought him in on a four-year contract. He might have been receptive were it not for something that happened in his private life, which he does not wish to disclose, but said required him to stick it out for the next six months.
“I did think they were bluffing, to be honest,” he said.
Hrustic played in Verona’s first three pre-season fixtures, which made him think he was right to call their bluff. But when the Serie A season began, he was tossed aside. Only after the transfer window had closed did he discover the club didn’t even register him in their squad, leaving him in no-man’s-land.
He is still not entirely sure why Verona went dark on him so suddenly, but he has his theories: “Maybe they were hoping to sell me straight after the World Cup, and it didn’t happen … and then they just went, ‘You know what? Nothing might happen from here, we might just get rid of him.’ I did get injured. I’ve got no idea. But being left out the way they did ... then the lawyers got involved. It just shows how football can be. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be treated the way I’ve been treated. I don’t think I deserved it. I was always a professional. I put my head down and just worked. You ask yourself what, why, how?”
Ajdin Hrustic in action for Hellas Verona.Credit: Getty
His disappointment intensified when the October international window came around. The Socceroos played two friendlies in London, against England and New Zealand, and Hrustic pleaded with Arnold to pick him, so he could show any potentially interested clubs that there was nothing wrong with him, and to combat a growing perception in European circles that he was damaged goods because of his previous ankle issues and mysterious, unexplained disappearance.
Arnold has made exceptions for some key players like defender Harry Souttar, who continues to be selected for Australia despite being similarly ignored by his manager at Leicester City.
“I don’t want to mention other players, because everyone’s different,” Hrustic said.
Graham Arnold and Ajdin Hrustic celebrate Australia’s World Cup qualification after beating Peru on penalties.Credit: Getty Images
“But I think that those two friendly games would have been a great chance for me to show the world that I’m fit, and I’m OK. I’m not asking him to play 90 minutes, just to be part of the squad. After being treated so bad by the club, being let down by the club, it would have been good to have that support from the national team.
“But it’s part of life. And you’ve just got to accept it, close the chapter, wipe the page and start a new chapter. We’ll see what March will bring, but hopefully then, I’ll start my new chapter, speak to Arnie in person and just express how I feel and how I felt. I think it’s important.
“What’s missing [from the team], what isn’t? I’ll never comment. I’m a player. I’ll just keep my mouth shut and work and just let my feet talk.”
Hrustic is ready to make up for lost time with the Socceroos. He escaped from Verona on transfer deadline day, signing a short-term deal with Eredivisie battlers Heracles – reuniting with Erwin van de Looi, the coach who first introduced him to the senior team at FC Groningen, where he made his professional debut in 2017.
He is making regular starts again and last week scored his first goal, a brilliant curling effort from outside the box against Almere City, and is only now entering what would be regarded as his footballing prime. At the end of the season, he will be a free agent again.
“That’s the thing. As soon as I get doubted, I make sure I’ll prove people wrong,” Hrustic said.
“The club and I sat down and spoke, it all happened quick. They said, ‘It’s a win-win situation. You’re going to help us, we’re going to help you, and let’s get to it.’
“I know the league, I’ve been here for years, I’ve played here, and it wasn’t a big risk. I mean, there’s always a risk in football, in life, but I thought it was probably the best option for me at the moment. I know the league.
“It’s a technical league. And it’s a good league for the next step.”
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