Can you believe we got the chance to meet up with A-league and Indian Super League star Andrew Barisic?
YEAH WE DID!
We received this chance because back in the day, Managing Director, Marco Maisano used to train with Andrew Barisic and they remain close friends to this day! We wanted to share his story with you all so you can get a taste of what life of a professional is like and understand what it takes to make it. Within this story, Andrew explains a lot about his future ambitions in the hopes that all students understand the importance of being prepared for what life challenges you with.
Andrew Barisic began playing in the A-league in 2009 for Gold Coast United for around two years and impressed many. Everything seemed kicked off from there and Andrew has moved around, playing for many other clubs since. His next move after Gold Coast United was to Indonesia where he played for the ‘Persebaya 1927’ Club in 2011. Not long afterwards, in 2012, Andrew received an offer from Persebaya’s rival Club ‘Arema’; this was when he first played in the Asian Cup where his team made it into the quarter finals.
After this, Andrews career moved to another part of the world to play for India’s top team in 2013, ‘East Bengal’, where he and his team felt privileged to be coached by one of Australia’s best, Trevor Morgan. Andrew again participated in the Asian Cup, this time making it into the semi-finals. Andrew has been to a few clubs in between but actually loves the fact that he gets to travel the world doing what he loves for a living. Most recently, Andrew played in the Indian Super League; this event had more viewings than the World Cup within its first week. The Indian Super League was created to, ‘wake up the sleeping giant’ according to Andrew, as the country has a huge potential and so much money to be able to better India’s National Team and move them up the world football ladder.
In such big games, Andrew explains there is a lot of work to commit to and “you have a lot of games and not enough time to train during the seasons; so you can imagine the amount of ice baths we had to take”. During the pre-season on the other hand, all the athletes train two to three times a day.
“This may sound like a lot, but I have never been tempted to change my career, one- because I love what I do, two- because I wouldn’t want to start my career all over again. In saying this, because athletes can only do what they do for so long, I do need a backup plan and am pushing towards business. That is what I find so important about the NSR experience; you come out qualified and are ready for either one of your paths. Many professional athletes get to their 30’s, struggle to make the transition to another field and become bust”.
We headed towards the end of the interview with Andrew sharing his wisdom with us to share with our athletes at NSR, “As a striker, I would advise all strikers to practice finishing scoring; you should all aim to master the technique of knowing where you are on the field and how to score from that position. Practice in different positions and angles so you’re prepared for many different games for when there is no time to think before you shoot.”
It was such a pleasure to meet Andrew and what we would like our athletes to remember at the end of the day, is that Andrew started playing soccer when he was young, only dreaming of one day becoming a professional. You are all in that same boat; the difference lies between those who never stop fighting and those that do.