Galeković Eugene life and biography

Eugen-Josip "Eugene" Galeković (born 12 June 1981) is an Australian association football player who currently plays as a goalkeeper for Adelaide United in the A-League and internationally for Australia.

Club career

Galeković's junior football was mostly played at Chelsea Hajduk in Melbourne's South-Eastern suburbs.

Galekovic played school football for St Bede's College.

Galekovic started his career with Morwell based National Soccer League (NSL) side Gippsland Falcons as a 19-year-old in December 2000 before signing with South Melbourne the following season. He stayed with South Melbourne until the NSL's closure in 2003–04 where at season's end he secured a place on the list of Beira Mar in Portugal on the back of holding the number one spot for Australia's Olympic football campaign in Athens in 2004.

The period at Beira Mar was generally unsuccessful for Galekovic, with him seeing little first team action and thus, he returned to Melbourne to sign for the city's inaugural A-League side Melbourne Victory for season 2005–06, debuting in the opening match against Sydney.

Galeković played 11 matches for the season in an unusual goalkeeper rotation policy employed by Melbourne manager Ernie Merrick in which the other 10 matches saw teammate Michael Theoklitos in goal. Galeković has been second choice keeper for the Victory in the 2006–07 season but an injury to Theoklitos gave Galeković his first start of the season in the round 13 clash against Queensland Roar at Suncorp Stadium.

Adelaide United

On 30 October, Eugene signed for Melbourne Victory arch-rivals Adelaide United as a replacement for injured keeper Daniel Beltrame and made his debut against Queensland Roar at Hindmarsh Stadium. On 20 January 2008, Galeković kept his first clean sheet for Adelaide in a 2–0 win over Queensland at Hindmarsh Stadium. On 27 December 2008 Galeković made a string of impressive saves to ensure Adelaide kept its 1–0 advantage over Perth Glory and in the process giving him his fifth clean sheet of the league season.

In February 2010, Galekovic capped off another brilliant year by winning the Adelaide United Life FM Player of the Year Award sponsored by Payneham Road Chemplus Compounding Pharmacy.

International

Galeković has been called up for Australia in a preliminary squad with teammates Scott Jamieson and Paul Reid after impressive performances in the A-League and the Asian Champions League. He made his first senior international debut for the Socceroos on 28 January 2009 in an AFC Asian Cup qualifying match versus Indonesia. He was disappointing in his last outing against Kuwait, by letting in two poor goals after Australia conceded a 2-0 advantage. He was picked for the preliminary 2010 World Cup squad.

Career statistics

1993–1997 Chelsea Hajduk
1997–1998 Bulleen

Senior career

1999–2000 Melbourne Knights
2000–2001 Morwell Falcons
2002–2004 South Melbourne
2004–2005 S.C. Beira-Mar
2005 → FC Marco (loan)
2005–2007 Melbourne Victory
2007– Adelaide United

National team

2003–2004 Australia U-23
2009– Australia

Read more