Michael Petkovic (born 16 July 1976) is an Australian former

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 ...

Club career

Petkovic is of

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n origin and is the brother of former

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 ...

goalkeeper Jason Petkovic.

South Melbourne

Petkovic started off his career with

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at the 2021 ...

in the NSL as a 19-year-old. As the second choice to youth product Dean Anastasiadis, Petkovic was relegated to cup games for game time. Petkovic however took advantage of his limited opportunities and produced numerous man of the match performances in South Melbourne's successful

NSL Cup The National Soccer League Cup (known most commonly as the NSL Cup) was an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic Australian soccer organised by the Australian Soccer Federation between 1977 and 1997. History The NSL Cup was or ...

run in the 1995/96 Season. Following this season, Petkovic would reclaim the number 1 spot and establish himself as one of Australia's finest goalkeepers as he earned half of his Socceroos caps during his time at South Melbourne. Petkovic would form a key role under

Ange Postecoglou Angelos "Ange" Postecoglou ( ; ; born 27 August 1965) is a soccer manager and former player who was most recently manager of club Tottenham Hotspur. Born in Greece, Postecoglou grew up in Melbourne from the age of five. As a player, he spen ...

's all-conquering South side as they went on to win back-to-back Championships in 1997/1998 and 1998/1999. Petkovic was awarded the NSL goalkeeper of the year title in 1999, 2001 and 2002 and was awarded the Theo Marmaras medal in 1999 which is given to the best player in that season for South Melbourne. His performances for the club led him to be voted by an expert panel as the starting goalkeeper in South Melbourne's team of the century in 2002. Overall during his 2-stints at the Hellas, Petkovic played 224 times keeping 54 clean sheets.

Later career

In 1999, he moved to French side

RC Strasbourg Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace, commonly known as RC Strasbourg (, ; RCS) or simply just Racing, is a French professional association football club founded in 1906 and based in the city of Strasbourg, Alsace. It became a professional club in ...

but didn't play a single league game and in 2000 he moved back to his old team South Melbourne. During his 2nd stint with the club, he moved on loan to

Lillestrøm SK Lillestrøm Sportsklubb is a Norwegian professional football club based in the city of Lillestrøm, just outside of the capital Oslo. Lillestrøm SK is a Norwegian football club based in Lillestrøm, playing in Eliteserien. The club was founde ...

, a Norwegian club. In 2002, he moved to Turkish

Super Lig Super may refer to: Computing * SUPER (computer program), or Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer, a video converter/player * Super (computer science), a keyword in object-oriented programming languages * Super key (keyboard button) ...

side

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional sports club located in the city of Trabzon, located in Black Sea region, northeastern Turkey. Established in 1967 through the merger of several local clubs, Trabzonspor is one of the most prominent A ...

and played 87 games for the club but left the club in 2005. He moved to

Sivasspor Sivasspor Kulübü, known as Net Global Sivasspor due to sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish sports club based in Sivas. The primary department of the club is men's football. Formed in 1967, its football department has competed in Süper Lig since t ...

and played 129 league games there and even managed to score a goal with the club. In 2010, he left the club to join

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 ...

side

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

. He played over 25 games in his first a league season and looked to stay there for the next campaign. He looked to be 2nd choice goalkeeper for the next campaign as

goalkeeper

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 ...

joined the Melbourne Victory. He announced his retirement from football shortly after the end of Melbourne Victory's Asian Champions League campaign.

International career

Petkovic's most notable appearance for his national side was when he kept goal in his team's world record breaking 31–0 win over

American Samoa American Samoa is an Territories of the United States, unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States located in the Polynesia region of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. Centered on , it is southeast of the island count ...

. He has had a total of six caps for Australia.

Career statistics

International

Honours

Individual

* South Melbourne FC Team of the Century * NSL Goalkeeper of the year: 1999, 2001, 2002 * Theo Marmaras Medal: 1999

South Melbourne FC

* NSL Championship: 1998/1999, 1997/1998 * NSL Cup: 1996 Trabzonspor *

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup () is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası''. Now Ziraat Bankası is ...

: 2002–03, 2003–04

References

External links

Melbourne Victory profile

FFA – Socceroo profile

on

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petkovic, Michael 1976 births Living people Soccer players from Perth, Western Australia Australian men's soccer players Australia men's international soccer players Australian expatriate men's soccer players Australian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic soccer players for Australia 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2007 AFC Asian Cup players South Melbourne FC players Trabzonspor footballers Sivasspor footballers RC Strasbourg Alsace players Lillestrøm SK players Melbourne Victory FC players Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Australian people of Croatian descent Süper Lig players National Soccer League (Australia) players Men's association football goalkeepers