Anthony Pavlešić (born 31 January 2006) is an Australian professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays as a

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 ...

for

Regionalliga Bayern The Regionalliga Bayern, ( en, Regional league Bavaria), is the highest association football league in the state of Bavaria (german: Bayern) and the Bavarian football league system. It is one of five Regionalligas in German football, the fourth tie ...

club

Bayern Munich II FC Bayern Munich II (''FC Bayern Munich Amateure'' until 2005) are the reserve team of German association football club FC Bayern Munich, they currently play in the Regionalliga Bayern. In 2010–11 they played in the 3. Liga, having qualifie ...

Club career

Central Coast Mariners

Pavlešić started his youth football at the NPL level, playing for

Sydney United Sydney United 58 Football Club is a semi-professional soccer club and current NSW NPL Champions based in Edensor Park, Sydney, New South Wales Australia. The club was formed as Sydney Croatia in 1958, by Croatian Australians in the area, but it ...

and

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier ...

before moving to

Gosford Gosford is the city and administrative centre of the Central Coast Council local government area in the heart of the Central Coast region, about north of Sydney and about south of Newcastle. The city centre is situated at the northern extre ...

to join

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Ma ...

. In February 2023, Pavlešić was offered a two week trial for

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

and

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, th ...

in Germany. Additionally, he was offered a one-week trial by Dutch club

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

. On 9 March, Pavlesic signed a scholarship deal with the Mariners. During his time with the club, he trained under goalkeeping coach Miguel Miranda who had developed players with the likes of Ederson and

Jan Oblak Jan Oblak (born 7 January 1993) is a Slovenian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Atlético Madrid and captains the Slovenia national team. He is frequently ranked as one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Ob ...

. Pavlešić would make 3 appearances on the bench for the

A-League Men 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 ...

squad, however, he was praised and recognised for his professionalism and composure as a goalkeeper by academy coach

Abbas Saad Abbas Saad ( ar, عباس سعد; born 1 December 1967) is an Australian soccer manager and former player, who is currently managing National Premier Leagues NSW side Sydney Olympic. International career Born in Lebanon, Saad's family moved to ...

Bayern Munich

After impressing in trials over in Germany, on 19 June 2023, Pavlešić signed a three-year contract with

for an undisclosed fee. In his first months with the club, Pavlešić was unable to be named on the match squad due to paperwork issues with

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

. He made his debut for

in a 4–2 home victory

match against

SpVgg Ansbach SpVgg Ansbach is a German football club from the city of Ansbach, Bavaria. The club's greatest league success came in 2001, when it earned promotion to the tier-three Regionalliga Süd, where it lasted for only one season. They returned to th ...

on 3 October 2023.

International career

Pavlešić received his first call-up to the Australia U17 squad to initially play in the

AFF U-16 Youth Championship The AFF U-16 Championship is an annual international football competition contested by the national teams of the members of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and occasionally invited nations from the rest of Asia. The tournament used to be pl ...

in Indonesia. In October 2022, he was named captain for the squad prior to the

2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup qualification The 2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup qualification was an international men's under-17 football competition which was held to decide the participating teams of the 2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup. It was held as under-17 tournament for the first time after rebrand ...

after impressing the coaching staff with his leadership qualities.

Personal life

Anthony was born in

Fairfield, New South Wales Fairfield is a Greater Western Sydney, western suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Being in the centre of the Cumberland Plain, Fairfield is located west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrati ...

, a suburb of

Western Sydney Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

, the third child of four to Linda and Steve Pavlešić. His brother,

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

, currently plays for Anthony's former club, the Central Coast Mariners, and both are of Croatian descent.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pavlesic, Anthony 2006 births Living people Soccer players from Sydney Australian men's soccer players Men's association football goalkeepers Australian people of Croatian descent Central Coast Mariners Academy players Central Coast Mariners FC players FC Bayern Munich footballers Bundesliga players Australian expatriate men's soccer players Australian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Sportsmen from New South Wales