Aleksandar Šušnjar ( sr-cyrl, Александар Шушњар, born 19 August 1995) is an Australian professional

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 ...

who plays as a defender for

Macarthur FC Macarthur Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in South Western Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in Australia's premier soccer competition, the A-League, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). On 1 ...

in the A-League.

Club career

Born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Šušnjar made his senior debut in Europe, playing with Lithuanian side Ekranas in

A Lyga The A Lyga is the top division of professional football in Lithuania. The A Lyga is an abbreviation of Aukščiausia lyga meaning Highest League. It is organized by Lithuanian Football Federation LFF ( lt, Lietuvos Futbolo Federacija). The Auk� ...

seasons

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. Then he returned to Australia and played with

Perth SC Perth Soccer Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in West Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1987 as the result of a merger between three local sides, though its pre-merger history is regarded to be that of Perth ...

in the 2015 National Premier Leagues. Next he signed with Lietava Jonava playing with them in the 2016 A Lyga. Romanian

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently Sponsor (commercial), sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It ...

club Gaz Metan Mediaș signed him and Šušnjar played with them until the winter-break when he moved to Czech Republic and joined

FK Teplice FK Teplice is a Czech football club based in the city of Teplice. The club currently plays in the Czech First League. The club was founded after World War II in 1945. The club advanced to the Czechoslovak First League in just three years after ...

. A year later, another

Czech First League The Czech First League, known as the Fortuna liga for sponsorship reasons, is a Czech professional league for football clubs. At the top of the Czech football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Seasons typically r ...

signed him,

Mladá Boleslav Mladá Boleslav (; german: Jungbunzlau) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 42,000 inhabitants. Mladá Boleslav is the second most populated city in the region and a major centre of the Czech automotive in ...

. On 24 July 2018, he joined

MŠK Žilina MŠK Žilina () is a Slovak football club based in the town of Žilina, that is playing in the Slovak Superliga. Since the league inception in 1993, the club has won 7 titles and comes second in All-time table that makes them one of the most ...

on a six-month loan deal. Susnjar then moved to Busan IPark in South Korea's K League on 28 February 2019. In October 2020, Šušnjar joined A-League expansion club

International career

Šušnjar initially represented

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

, having made one appearance in 2011 for the Serbian U-17 side. However, by January 2018, he already called the attention of the Australian FA and made a debut for the Australian U23 team. He received his first senior call up when he was selected in

Bert van Marwijk Lambertus van Marwijk (; born 19 May 1952) is a Dutch football manager who was recently the head coach of the United Arab Emirates national team. As a player, he played for the Go Ahead Eagles, AZ, MVV and Fortuna Sittard amongst other club ...

's first ''Socceroos'' squad for the March 2018 friendlies. He made the debut for the Australian national team in a friendly game against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

played on 23 March 2018.

Personal life

In addition to his native English, Šušnjar can also speak Serbian, Lithuanian,

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

and can get by in

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

. He has been often confused with same named Serbian footballer, who previously played with Donji Srem in the

Serbian First League The Serbian First League ( sr, Прва лига Србије / Prva liga Srbije), referred to as the Mozzart Bet First League ( sr, Моцарт Бет Прва лига / Mozzart Bet Prva liga) for sponsorship reasons, is the name for the second ...

, along with older brother, Milan.

References

External links

* * * * Living people 1995 births Soccer players from Perth, Western Australia Australian soccer players Australia international soccer players Australia youth international soccer players Australian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Serbian footballers Serbia youth international footballers Australian people of Serbian descent Expatriate footballers in Romania Expatriate footballers in Lithuania Expatriate footballers in the Czech Republic Expatriate footballers in Slovakia Expatriate footballers in South Korea FK Ekranas players FK Jonava players CS Gaz Metan Mediaș players FK Teplice players FK Mladá Boleslav players MŠK Žilina players Busan IPark players Macarthur FC players A Lyga players Liga I players Czech First League players Slovak Super Liga players K League 2 players Association football defenders Australian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Australian expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia Australian expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic Australian expatriate sportspeople in Lithuania Australian expatriate soccer players {{Serbia-footy-defender-stub