Michael Dragan Curcija ( Serbian: Мајкл Драган Ћурчија, Majkl Dragan Ćurčija; born 27 June 1977 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

) is a retired

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 ...

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 ...

striker.

Club career

Curcija's first taste of senior football came in the lower levels of the

Victorian State League The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer leagu ...

, where as a 16-year-old, he made his debut for Diamond Valley United, scoring in three matches before securing a move to

Heidelberg United Heidelberg United Alexander Football Club (founded as Alexander the Great-Melbourne Soccer Club) established in 1958 is a football (soccer) club based in the northern Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg West, Victoria, Australia. The team currently ...

in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

. Curcija made his NSL debut in a 1–0 home loss to

Adelaide City Adelaide City Football Club is a soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The club was known historically as Juventus — the original name given to the club by its founders in Adelaide's Italian community. Adelaide City is one of Aust ...

in 1994. Another substitute appearance followed before he transferred to rivals

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

the following season. It was at South Melbourne that Curcija established himself as one of Australia's most prolific young strikers. He helped the club to successive championships in 1998 and 1999, and scored a personal best of 19 goals in the 1999–2000 season. His career highlight for South Melbourne was representing the club in the

2000 FIFA Club World Championship The 2000 FIFA Club World Championship was the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup, the world club championship for men's club association football teams. It took place in Brazil from 5 January to 14 January 2000. FIFA as football's international gover ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. At the age of 23, Curcija secured a dream move to

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

n giants

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; en, Partizan Football Club), sometimes known as Partizan Belgrade in English, is a Serbia, Serbian professional football club (association football), football ...

, but he struggled to settle or win a first team spot, and after three months, moved to Portugal where he signed a contract with the ambitious

SC Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese f ...

in the

Portuguese Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

. His first season was restricted to bench appearances as the club finished fourth, but he secured his first starts with the senior squad along with his debut goal the following year. However, throughout his time at the club, he was largely a feature of the club's reserves team who competed in the Portuguese Third Tier. Curcija ultimately returned to

for what was the final NSL season in 2003–04, picking up where he left off in domestic football, scoring 13 goals in 25 appearances. With the league disbanded, Curcija returned to the

Victorian Premier League The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer leagu ...

, playing with

Essendon Royals Essendon Royals Soccer Club is an Australian semi-professional association football, soccer club based in the North-Western Melbourne Local government areas of Victoria, local government area of City of Moonee Valley, Moonee Valley. The club's s ...

in 2004, where he scored at better than a goal a game. His form in 2005 was just as impressive, playing every match of the season for 15 goals. Despite his pedigree, he failed to land a contract in the inaugural

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 ...

season, and signed for newly promoted

Kingston City Kingston City was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1925 to 1953. It was located in the province of Ontario. This riding was created in 1924 from parts of Kingston riding. It consisted of the cit ...

in 2006, where another prolific season followed. In 2007, he transferred to

Altona Magic Altona Magic Soccer Club (Commonly known as Altona Vardar SC) is a soccer team based in Altona North, a western suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Magic currently compete in the second tier of the Australian soccer league system. Fo ...

, playing in successive championships in 2008 and 2009, before moving to

Oakleigh Cannons Oakleigh Cannons Football Club is a soccer club based in the south-east Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia. The club, established by members of Oakleigh's Greek Australian community, currently competes in the NPL Victoria. The cl ...

for the 2010 season.

International career

Having established himself as a first team regular for

in the

, Curcija was selected by

Les Scheinflug Ladislav "Les" Scheinflug (born 1 October 1938) is a former football (soccer) player and coach. Biography Arriving in Australia in the early 1950s he lived as a youth at Villawood Migrant Hostel and played for the hostel soccer team (Villawood ...

in the Oceania Qualifying tournament for the

1997 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, known as the 1997 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Youth Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 11th staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship. It was held from 16 June to 5 July 1997 in Malaysia. It was th ...

. He scored a brace in his first match against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

, and featured against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in the group phase and final. The finals were staged in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, and featured several players who would go on to become senior

Socceroos The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated with ...

, including

Brett Emerton Brett Michael Emerton (born 22 February 1979) is an Australian former professional footballer who played for Sydney Olympic, Sydney FC, Feyenoord Rotterdam, Blackburn Rovers and the Australia national team. Able to play as a wide midfielder or ...

Lucas Neill Lucas Edward Neill (born 9 March 1978) is an Australian former soccer player. Neill played as a defender, often playing as a centre back as well as a full-back. Neill spent almost 15 years of his career playing in England. He represented Austr ...

Vince Grella Vince is a given name, it is the anglicisation and shortened form of the name Vincent, as well as a surname. It may refer to: Given name People * Vince Agnew (born 1987), American football player * Vince Cable (born 1943), British politici ...

and

Mark Bresciano Mark Bresciano ( ; ; born 11 February 1980) is an Australian former professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. Born in Melbourne, Bresciano played youth football for Bulleen Lions, before moving into the National Soccer League with ...

. Curcija featured in all of Australia's matches in the tournament, but failed to trouble the score sheet. Curcija's performances at Under 20 level were rewarded with selection in the

Olyroos The Australia national under-23 soccer team represents Australia in international under-23 soccer and at the Olympic Games. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia (FA), which is currently a membe ...

squad for the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

which were staged in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Raul Blanco Raúl Blanco (born 4 December 1941) is an Argentine-born Australian Association football coach and former player. Blanco was born in Buenos Aires. He is well known for coaching the Socceroos from March 1998 to June 1999. He was also coaching t ...

played him in a striking role alongside

Mark Viduka Mark Antony Viduka ( ; born 9 October 1975) is an Australian retired football player who played as a centre forward. He captained the Australia national team to the Round of 16 at the 2006 FIFA World Cup which remains their best ever performance ...

in all of Australia's matches against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

, but he did not score as the Olyroos failed to progress beyond the group phase. He earned his first Socceroos cap under

Frank Farina Frank Farina OAM (born 5 September 1964) is an Australian football (soccer) coach and former player who played as a forward. His playing career spanned Australia, Belgium, France, Italy and England, and was a major player for the Australian ...

later that year in an away friendly against

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

, coming on as a substitute for goalscorer

John Aloisi John Aloisi () (born 5 February 1976) is an Australian former soccer player and current head coach of A-League club Western United. In a professional career that spanned 20 seasons, with league totals of 459 games and 127 goals, he was the first ...

in the 60th minute. He replaced Aloisi again three days later in a match against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, which the Socceroos lost 4–2 after blowing a 2–0 lead. Despite playing in a top European league at the time, he failed to impress the national selectors, and these matches remain his only full international caps.

References

External links

OzFootball profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Curcija, Michael 1977 births Living people Australian people of Serbian descent Australian soccer players Association football forwards Australia international soccer players Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic soccer players of Australia South Melbourne FC players FK Partizan players Primeira Liga players S.C. Braga players Segunda Divisão players S.C. Braga B players Australian expatriate soccer players Expatriate footballers in Serbia and Montenegro Expatriate footballers in Portugal Australian Institute of Sport soccer players Australian expatriate sportspeople in Serbia and Montenegro Australian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Australia youth international soccer players Soccer players from Melbourne