Aleksandar "Aleks" Vrteski (; born 28 September 1988) is a former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for Stirling Lions. Born in Australia, he represented Australia internationally before switching to represent Macedonia.

Club career

Having been involved with

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...

's former youth development scheme, ''Future Glory'', in the past, Vrteski was invited by technical manager, Mich d'Avray, to train with the first team as part of the Pathway to Glory initiative midway through 2005. Vrteski was signed from the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

and was the youngest player in the

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

for the 2006-07 season. In October 2006, Aleks became the club's first-choice goalkeeper for the 06/07 season for the first few rounds but was replaced by Jason Petkovic. Petkovic suffered a season- (and possibly career-) ending injury in Round Nine and Vrteski was a starter for a few more games until the club signed Tommi Tomich, who replaced Vrteski in the starting line-up. Vrteski made a move overseas to play for

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

n club

FK Pobeda FK Pobeda () was a football club based in the city of Prilep, North Macedonia. History The club was founded in 1941 as Goce Delčev and renamed in 1950 to FK Pobeda. FK Pobeda has been a winner of Macedonian First League for two times (eight ti ...

in 2007 and returned to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

to sign for

for the second time in his career in 2009, where he played as a backup to

Tando Velaphi Tando Yuji Velaphi (born 17 April 1987) is an Australian professional Association football, football player who played as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Subiaco AFC, Subiaco AFC. Club career Early playing career Velaphi tr ...

. Aleks Vrteski has signed with Solo FC in Liga Primer Indonesia. On 22 November 2012 it was announced that the player had been loaned to

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australi ...

as an injury replacement.

A-League career statistics

(''Correct as of 8 March 2010'')

International career

Vrteski has played for

at U-17 and U-20 levels. The 17-year-old made his debut for the

Young Socceroos The Australia national under-20 soccer team, known colloquially as the Young Socceroos, represents Australia in international under-20 Association football, soccer. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football ...

, keeping a clean sheet in a 4–0 win over

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

to seal the U-20s' place in the Asian Youth Championships. As a member of Macedonia U-21 team he played for the friendly match against Croatia U-21 on 11 February 2009.

References

External links

Perth Glory profile

Macedonian Football
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vrteski, Aleks 1988 births Living people People from Karratha, Western Australia Macedonian men's footballers 21st-century Macedonian sportsmen North Macedonia men's youth international footballers Australian men's soccer players Australia men's youth international soccer players Australian people of Macedonian descent Australian expatriate men's soccer players A-League Men players Macedonian First Football League players Liga 1 (Indonesia) players Indonesian Premier League players National Premier Leagues players Perth Glory FC players FK Pobeda players Persis Solo players Persija Jakarta (IPL) players Newcastle Jets FC players Stirling Macedonia FC players Inglewood United FC players Expatriate men's footballers in Indonesia Australian expatriate sportspeople in Indonesia Australian Institute of Sport soccer players Men's association football goalkeepers Soccer players from Western Australia 21st-century Australian sportsmen