Isaka Aongor Čerňák-Okanya (born 9 April 1989) 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 le ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

for

Olympic FC Olympic Football Club is a semi-professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland. The club was founded in 1967 and currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Queensland, with home matches played at Goodwin Park. The club has grow ...

Club career

Youth career

In his youth football playing days, Cernak played for the Peninsula Power,

Westside FC Westside Grovely FC is a football (soccer) club based in the locality of Grovely, Queensland, Australia. The club currently has Men's teams in the Football Queensland Premier League 5, and Football Queensland Metro competitions, as well as a ...

, Brisbane City, QAS and the

AIS AIS may refer to: Medicine * Abbreviated Injury Scale, an anatomical-based coding system to classify and describe the severity of injuries * Acute ischemic stroke, the thromboembolic type of stroke * Androgen insensitivity syndrome, an intersex ...

football teams.

Brisbane Roar

In 2008 Isaka Cernak joined

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 ...

team

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland and has won the domestic title on three occasions, as well as holding the longest unbeaten record of 36 league matches without defeat. Brisba ...

(then called Queensland Roar), making 15 appearances and scoring a goal in his two seasons with the club. On 24 January 2009, Cernak made his senior debut as a substitute for Brisbane Roar against

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 ...

in a 4–2 win. In 2010, he left the Roar to join state rivals the

North Queensland Fury Northern Fury Football Club was an Australian professional soccer club based in Townsville, Queensland. The club was founded in 2008 and competed in the A-League under the name North Queensland Fury. On 1 March 2011, the club was removed from t ...

North Queensland Fury

In June 2010, Isaka signed a deal with North Queensland Fury to become their 15th signed player for their upcoming season. He made 14 appearances for the Fury, scoring one goal in his season with the Fury. Unfortunately for Cernak, the Fury were unable to extend his contract due to FFA ownership of the club.Victory Swoop For Cernak

Melbourne Victory

During the 2010–11 season Melbourne Victory signed Cernak for the following season and

Asian Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

campaign as a replacement for departing striker

Robbie Kruse Robbie Thomas Kruse ( ; ; born 5 October 1988) is an Australian professional footballer who last played as a forward for Melbourne Victory and the Australia national team. He played his junior football with Albany Creek in the Pine Rivers distr ...

to Bundesliga 2 club

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

, with Fury unable to extend his contract due to FFA ownership of the club.

Wellington Phoenix

After being released by Melbourne during the January transfer window Cernak signed with

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

until the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, having already agreeing to terms with Perth Glory for the following season.

Perth Glory

Just a few months after signing with Wellington Phoenix, Cernak signed with

Central Coast Mariners

In February 2014 Isaka signed for reigning A-League champions

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 ...

. Isaka stated upon signing: "Being able to have one-and-a-half years to learn as a footballer off 'Mossy' (

Phil Moss Phil Moss (born 5 October 1971) is an English-born Australian association football manager and former player who was most recently assistant coach of Sydney FC. Early life Moss was born in London, England to Jewish parents and arrived in Aust ...

) and the players at Central Coast Mariners is really exciting for me." He was released from the Mariners in 2015 after the club opted against renewing his contract.

SuperSport United

He joined South African side

SuperSport United SuperSport United Football Club (often known as SuperSport) is a South African professional football club based in Atteridgeville in Pretoria in the Gauteng province. The team currently plays in the Dstv Premiership. United is known as ''Matsats ...

in June 2015 on a 3-year deal. However, Isaka struggled to make an impact and made just 7 league appearances before he sustained a knee injury that required surgery, ruling him out for the rest of the season. He subsequently agreed to a contract termination.

Sisaket

Isaka next joined

Thai League The Thai League 1 ( th, ไทยลีก 1), often referred to as T1, is the top level of the Thai football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Thai League 2. Seasons run from August ...

club

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where he made 14 appearances and scored 1 goal.

Home United

His signing for

Singapore Premier League The Singapore Premier League, commonly abbreviated as SPL, officially known as the AIA Singapore Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional football league sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), which re ...

side

Home United Lion City Sailors Football Club, commonly referred to as The Sailors or LCS, is a Singaporean professional football club competing in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of the Singapore football league system. Since the 2021 season, the ...

was announced on 13 July 2018, coming in to fill the vacant slot for foreign players left by

Sirina Camara Sirina Camara (born 12 April 1991) is a French footballer who plays for S.League club Home United as a defender. Camara can play either as a left-back or centre-back. Prior to playing for Home United, Camara has also played for Étoile and Youn ...

(whose season had been prematurely cut short by an ACL injury). He made his debut for the Protectors in a

Singapore Cup The Singapore Cup is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic Singaporean football. Established in 1998, it is the foremost football cup competition in the country. It is open to clubs in the Singapore Premier League. Since ...

loss against

Tampines Rovers Tampines Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Tampines, Singapore, that competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of Singapore football league system. Founded in 1945, the club have won the national league ...

where he was introduced as a substitute. He followed up his debut by scoring his first goal for the club in the

AFC Cup The AFC Cup is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Under its current rules, the competition is played primarily between clubs from nations that did not receive direct qualifying s ...

ASEAN Zone Finals a week later, scoring the goal that earned his team a 1–1 draw in the first-leg.

International career

Cernak has represented Australia at U-20 and U-23 level. He has 19 caps and five goals at U-20 level and he currently has 7 caps and zero goals at U-23 level. He has won the

Weifang Cup The Weifang Cup (Simplified Chinese: 潍坊杯) is a football tournament which traditionally features invited national and club teams composed of under-20 players although the first tournament in 2006 included under-13 and under-15 teams as well. T ...

U-18 competition for Australia in 2007 and the International Cor Groenewegen Tournament at U-20 level in 2009.

Personal life

Cernak was born in

Galiwin'ku Elcho Island, known to its traditional owners as Galiwin'ku (Galiwinku) is an island off the coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located at the southern end of the Wessel Islands group located in the East Arnhem ...

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

. His father is

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

n, and his mother is

European Australian European Australians are citizens or residents of Australia whose ancestry originates from the peoples of Europe. They form the largest panethnic group in the country. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorised within Eu ...

with a Scottish-Czech-American family background.Vidmar puts faith in young guard to step up to Socceroos
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Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cernak, Isaka 1989 births Living people Australian people of Czech descent Australian people of Ugandan descent Australian people of Scottish descent Australian people of American descent Australia men's youth international soccer players Australia men's under-20 international soccer players A-League Men players Brisbane Roar FC players Northern Fury FC players Melbourne Victory FC players Central Coast Mariners FC players Soccer players from Brisbane Brisbane City FC players Wellington Phoenix FC players SuperSport United F.C. players Isaka Cernak Australian Institute of Sport soccer players Men's association football midfielders Australian men's soccer players