Image: Mark Witte
The Melbourne Knights have secured their fifth signing of the off-season with the return of young defender Tomislav Fadljevic from Melbourne City Youth.
The 19-year-old returns to Somers Street after two years away from the club where he was a part of Joe Palatsides’ City Youth NPL/NYL side.
The teenager made his senior debut in 2014 as a 17-year-old for the Knights in a 2-0 home win over the Oakleigh Cannons in September before making two further subsequent league appearances.
Over the 2014/15 off-season he returned to the Melbourne City Youth set-up only to have his 2015 season disrupted by a long-term injury which kept him out for the majority of the season.
He returned to full fitness over the summer and played a handful of fixtures for the reigning NYL Champions in the 2015/16 campaign before making 21 appearances for the side in NPL2 last term.
Speaking via club press release, Fadljevic cited a phone conversation with Knights manager Andrew Marth as a major influence behind his move back to North Sunshine.
“Stabba gave me a call at the end of my NPL season with Melbourne City and we met up to discuss the year ahead. I had to decide whether it would be good for my career as I had other options that were available to me.”
“Once our conversation was over, I realised that Melbourne Knights was the way to go”, added the Knights junior who had been in the City Youth system for the past four years.
Fadljevic joins Kym Harris, Jake Barker-Daish, Elvis Kamsoba and Danny Dixon as new recruits heading into the 2017 NPL season.