Aleksandar "Aleks" Vrteski ( mk, Александар Вртески) (born 28 September 1988 in Karratha,

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

) is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring 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 intercepting o ...

who plays for

Stirling Lions Stirling Macedonia Football Club (formerly West Perth Macedonia, Stirling Lions) is an Australian football club based in Perth, Western Australia, who are competing in 2023 in the National Premier Leagues Western Australia. History Early his ...

. Born in Australia, Vrteski represented Australia internationally before switching to represent Macedonia.

Club career

Having been involved with

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 19 ...

's former youth development scheme, ''Future Glory'', in the past, Vrteski was invited by technical manager,

Mich d'Avray Jean-Michel (Mich) d'Avray (born 19 February 1962 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a former professional association footballer who spent the majority of his playing career at Ipswich Town. He was most recently Technical Director at Ajax Cape To ...

, 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 (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

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 Jason Petkovic (born 7 December 1972 in Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian football (soccer) player. He is the brother of Michael Petkovic. Club career He played as a goalkeeper for the Australian A-League club Perth Glory where he ...

. 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 Tomislav "Tommi" Tomich (born 14 February 1980) is an Australian goalkeeper who plays for Sydenham Park. Biography Tomich has previously played with Bassendean Caledonians, Cockburn City, Melbourne Knights FC, Western Knights and a stint with ...

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 traditional geographic reg ...

n club FK Pobeda in 2007 and returned to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

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 football player who plays as a goalkeeper for Kochi United. Club career Early playing career Velaphi trained at the AIS in Canberra on a football scholarship. Perth SC (20 ...

. Aleks Vrteski has signed with

Solo FC Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Surakarta (commonly known as PERSIS Solo, literally translates to Indonesian Football Association of Surakarta), is an Indonesian football club based in the Central Java city of Surakarta. Founded on 8 November 1923 ...

in Liga Primer Indonesia. On 22 November 2012 it was announced that the player had been loaned to Newcastle Jets 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 soccer. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia (FA), which ...

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

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

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 footballers North Macedonia youth international footballers Australian soccer players Australia youth international soccer players Australian people of Macedonian descent Australian expatriate soccer players FK Pobeda players Expatriate footballers in Indonesia A-League Men players Perth Glory FC players Australian Institute of Sport soccer players Association football goalkeepers