So, is he injured still? Or will he play?
Marco Rojas - The return of the Kiwi Messi
pretty sure he's playing, well he has been speaking on behalf of the all whites to the spanish speaking media.
So, is he injured still? Or will he play?
Quoted over the weekend as saying he felt comfortable and he'd been able to train free of pain the last ten days.
Pictured taking part in All Whites training in LA the last few days (far right here):
I guess if his club let him participate then we have to play him.
Off the bench probs.
Jeez I'm glad he's there
Looking at that picture, everyone of those players has yellow on his boots..... What?
Looking at that picture, everyone of those players has yellow on his boots..... What?
Brockie.... pink shoes and yellow laces!?
No one wears black boots anymore
reminds me of chris pringle and his zinc early nineities cricket face
You have to wonder if its a team thing...
Looking at that picture, everyone of those players has yellow on his boots..... What?
Cuz they're all on yellow cards LOL
No one wears black boots anymore
except ADP - so retro
Marco quite rightly a finalist for Oceania Player of the Year - who would you give the award to? For me, it's between Rojas and Reid.
OFC MEN'S PLAYER OF THE YEAR NOMINEES:
(The winners will be announced Monday 18 November, 2013)
http://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc/News/ViewArticle/tabid/125/Article/b1264b34-9657-4d0f-a2df-be153aeafb28/language/en-US/Default.aspx
Georges GOPE-FENEPEJ - ESTAC Troyes (France) / New Caledonia
Ryan NELSEN - Tottenham Hotspur/Queens Park Rangers/All Whites, OlyWhites
Nicolas VALLAR - AS Dragon/Tahiti
Chris WOOD - WBA (Birmingham City/Bristol City/Millwall)/All Whites, OlyWhites
Marco ROJAS - Melbourne Victory/All Whites, OlyWhites
Michael McGLINCHEY - Central Coast Mariners/All Whites, OlyWhites
Benjamin TOTORI - Wellington Phoenix/Solomon Islands
Winston REID - West Ham United/All Whites
Jeremy BROCKIE - Wellington Phoenix/All Whites
Alvin TEHAU - AS Tefana/Tahiti
I'd give it to Totori.
Lots of good recent postings by Marco of time training in LA & arriving in Mexico on his Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/TheOfficialMarcoRojasPage
A well-deserved "Oceania Player of the Year" (covers previous season):
Nice detailed career appreciation here:
A well-deserved "Oceania Player of the Year" (covers previous season):
Nice detailed career appreciation here:
+1 Very well deserved - Marco is a brilliant young player.
Just noticed Marco was also named PFA "Young Player of the Year" the other week at the Australian Football Awards.
"22-year-old VfB Stuttgart and New Zealand midfielder Marco Rojas, meanwhile, picked up the PFA Harry Kewell Medal, awarded to the best professional Under-23 player plying their trade in either Australia’s A-League or overseas."
First foreign player to ever win it.
Robbie Kruse of Leverkusen "Player of the Year"
http://www.bundesliga.com/en/liga/news/2013/0000278763.php
http://www.fifpro.org/division/news_details/2/2416
"This year, New Zealand international Marco Rojas, 22, picked up the PFA Harry Kewell Medal ahead of Tom Rogic (currently Celtic) and Trent Sainsbury (Central Coast Mariners). All players under the age of 23 based in the A-League qualify for this prize, irrespective of nationality, coupled with young Australians plying their trade overseas.
The Kiwi, who was not present to receive the award while away on international duty for New Zealand’s World Cup play-off against Mexico, lit-up the A-League last season as a Melbourne Victory player, catching the eye of clubs all over the world before eventually signing for Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart.
Rojas is the fifth recipient of the PFA Harry Kewell Medal, won previously by Nikita Rukavytsya (2009), Mitch Langerak (2010), Robbie Kruse (2011) and Matt Ryan (2012)."
No game time at Stuttgart yet then?
Germany/England/Spain/Italy. Any club there will make you prob play reserves for a year or so. Amini?
Would be going off in Dutch league no doubt by now
Bundesliga now entering 4 week Xmas/winter break. Hopefully he'll get game time when season resumes.
will be good to see him on tv soon I hope
Can't help wondering whether Rojas would have been better off playing week in and week out for another season at Melbourne Victory than disappearing into the reserves at Stuttgart. He needs game time to strengthen himself and would no doubt have been a star of the A League.
I think he 'disappeared' because he got injured soon after arriving. Would have been out for same time with Victory.
Most players that have gone from the A-League to Europe have spent their first year with the reserves, its not unusual because of the step up in quality.
Most players that have gone from the A-League to Europe have spent their first year with the reserves, its not unusual because of the step up in quality.
Generally true, especially of younger players - though some Aussies even went straight from the old NSL to playing regularly for the very top European clubs -
e.g. Ned Zelic debuted in the Bundesliga months after signing for Borussia Dortmund from Sydney Olympic aged 21 in 1992 and made 18 starts + one as a sub in his first season.
Frank Farina - signed Club Brugge, Belgium October 1988 from Marconi - first team debut November...16 appearances first season
Mark Viduka - started playing regularly for Dinamo Zagreb in his first season after signing from Melbourne Knights (then "Croatia") in 1995.
Robbie Slater made four appearances for Anderlecht in his first season on signing from Sydney United.
At age 22 now, if Rojas doesn't make any appearances in the first team next season, you'd assume they don't rate him and his future there wouldn't look so good.
A problem he faces is he was signed by the previous management and may not be rated by the new manager Thomas Schneider.
There is of course, no guarantee he'll make it at Stuttgart - they have 12 midfielders in the first team squad and Marco is the only one not to have made any appearances (he's been injured of course):
Still, lets hope he gets a look-in in the second half of the season which starts mid-January.
Most players that have gone from the A-League to Europe have spent their first year with the reserves, its not unusual because of the step up in quality.
Generally true, especially of younger players - though some Aussies even went straight from the old NSL to playing regularly for the very top European clubs -
e.g. Ned Zelic debuted in the Bundesliga months after signing for Borussia Dortmund from Sydney Olympic aged 21 in 1992 and made 18 starts + one as a sub in his first season.
Frank Farina - signed Club Brugge, Belgium October 1988 from Marconi - first team debut November...16 appearances first season
Mark Viduka - started playing regularly for Dinamo Zagreb in his first season after signing from Melbourne Knights (then "Croatia") in 1995.
Robbie Slater made four appearances for Anderlecht in his first season on signing from Sydney United.
At age 22 now, if Rojas doesn't make any appearances in the first team next season, you'd assume they don't rate him and his future there wouldn't look so good.
A problem he faces is he was signed by the previous management and may not be rated by the new manager Thomas Schneider.
There is of course, no guarantee he'll make it at Stuttgart - they have 12 midfielders in the first team squad and Marco is the only one not to have made any appearances (he's been injured of course):
Still, lets hope he gets a look-in in the second half of the season which starts mid-January.
Most players that have gone from the A-League to Europe have spent their first year with the reserves, its not unusual because of the step up in quality.
Generally true, especially of younger players - though some Aussies even went straight from the old NSL to playing regularly for the very top European clubs -
e.g. Ned Zelic debuted in the Bundesliga months after signing for Borussia Dortmund from Sydney Olympic aged 21 in 1992 and made 18 starts + one as a sub in his first season.
Frank Farina - signed Club Brugge, Belgium October 1988 from Marconi - first team debut November...16 appearances first season
Mark Viduka - started playing regularly for Dinamo Zagreb in his first season after signing from Melbourne Knights (then "Croatia") in 1995.
Robbie Slater made four appearances for Anderlecht in his first season on signing from Sydney United.
At age 22 now, if Rojas doesn't make any appearances in the first team next season, you'd assume they don't rate him and his future there wouldn't look so good.
A problem he faces is he was signed by the previous management and may not be rated by the new manager Thomas Schneider.
There is of course, no guarantee he'll make it at Stuttgart - they have 12 midfielders in the first team squad and Marco is the only one not to have made any appearances (he's been injured of course):
http://www.vfb.de/en/teams/vfb/team-2013-2014-liste/page/2400-1-1-.html
Still, lets hope he gets a look-in in the second half of the season which starts mid-January.
If you look at young Ryan Thomas, formerly a national league player in NZ, now getting regular game time for PEC Zwolle in the Dutch Eredivisie and Fitzgerald soon to be joined by McGlinchey in the J League, perhaps it would have been better for Rojas to set his sights a bit lower than the Bundesliga. Regular game time is the key now he's 22. James is clearly benefitting from playing in the Swedish top division.
Maybe the Stuttgart coach who signed Marco told him he'd be getting regular game time, then he got injured and the coach got sacked? That injury was incredibly unfortunate, who knows what would have happened if he'd been available to fight for a first team place at the start of the season. It's a bit of a stretch to suggest that he should have gone to a smaller club to get game time when two big unforeseen events occurred in the half year he's been there. Marco wasn't to know he'd get injured and the coach would get sacked. Not that that might have made a difference but we'll never know.
Most players that have gone from the A-League to Europe have spent their first year with the reserves, its not unusual because of the step up in quality.
Generally true, especially of younger players - though some Aussies even went straight from the old NSL to playing regularly for the very top European clubs -
e.g. Ned Zelic debuted in the Bundesliga months after signing for Borussia Dortmund from Sydney Olympic aged 21 in 1992 and made 18 starts + one as a sub in his first season.
Frank Farina - signed Club Brugge, Belgium October 1988 from Marconi - first team debut November...16 appearances first season
Mark Viduka - started playing regularly for Dinamo Zagreb in his first season after signing from Melbourne Knights (then "Croatia") in 1995.
Robbie Slater made four appearances for Anderlecht in his first season on signing from Sydney United.
At age 22 now, if Rojas doesn't make any appearances in the first team next season, you'd assume they don't rate him and his future there wouldn't look so good.
A problem he faces is he was signed by the previous management and may not be rated by the new manager Thomas Schneider.
There is of course, no guarantee he'll make it at Stuttgart - they have 12 midfielders in the first team squad and Marco is the only one not to have made any appearances (he's been injured of course):
http://www.vfb.de/en/teams/vfb/team-2013-2014-liste/page/2400-1-1-.html
Still, lets hope he gets a look-in in the second half of the season which starts mid-January.
If you look at young Ryan Thomas, formerly a national league player in NZ, now getting regular game time for PEC Zwolle in the Dutch Eredivisie and Fitzgerald soon to be joined by McGlinchey in the J League, perhaps it would have been better for Rojas to set his sights a bit lower than the Bundesliga. Regular game time is the key now he's 22. James is clearly benefitting from playing in the Swedish top division.
HE has been playing in finland
Marco enjoying a holiday travelling around Europe in the one month winter break in the Bundesliga (until mid-January).
Currently in Hungary:
https://www.facebook.com/TheOfficialMarcoRojasPage
hmm, clicked the wrong thread. lol
Many positive comments about Marcos from Stuttgart fans who see him as the sort of player they need and hoping he sees game time when the Bundesliga resumes mid-January:
Kreon Von Ehringhausen Sein deutsch ist schon verdammt gut für die kurze Zeit die er hier ist!
Im Trainingslager wird er sich und seine körperliche Fitness beweisen und gegen Mainz sein erstes Spiel machen. Wir brauchen Spieler wie Rojas,Werner,Khedira die sich auch mal was trauen und 150% geben!
Pro Rojas! His german is already damned good for the short time that he is here! In training camp, he will prove himself and his physical fitness and make his debut against Mainz. We need players like Rojas, Werner, Khedira sometimes posing what trust and give 150%! Pro Rojas! (Translated by Bing)
A GOOD OMEN! Marco features in Stuttgart's official New Year greeting on their Facebook:
Frohes neues Jahr und alles Gute für 2014!! // Happy New Year!!
Was sind eure Wünsche für das neue Jahr?
Was sind eure Wünsche für das neue Jahr?
Happy new year and all the best for 2014! / / Happy new year!
What are your wishes for the new year? (Translated by Bing)
What are your wishes for the new year? (Translated by Bing)
Representative comments from Stuttgart fans on the club's official Facebook when it asked fans for their wishes for the New Year a few days ago: the most popular wish was for Marco to play!!!! Taken from dozens of comments:
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Chiara Drexler Rojas will play to beat Bayern
Like · Reply ·17 ·Yesterday at 3:47 am via mobile
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Michael Hohn I wish Rojas on the pitch and a more stable defensiveLike · Reply ·13 ·Yesterday at 3:31 am via mobile
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Marcel Attinger And hopefully plays Rojas finally!Like · Reply ·10 ·Yesterday at 3:28 am via mobile
What would these fans be basing their view on Big Pete?
What would these fans be basing their view on Big Pete?
There was a few stuggart fans who tuned into the all whites games to watch him, so other than that, his a league highlights clip and his pre season game would probably be the only other options. Unless the diehards who attend training sessions etc have seen something impressive. Also (and most likely) because on fifa he has mad skill and pace stats, so they believe it'll translate to real life.
What would these fans be basing their view on Big Pete?
Wishful thinking - a bit like the hope at war's end that the Fuehrer had secret weapons that would snatch victory. Fans are looking for hope because the team have been pretty average by the club's usual high standards (in 10th spot but firmly a bottom half of table team in the 18 team league - out of touch with the top nine teams and only five points from the third-to-bottom Freiberg):
Also Marco happens to appear in the photo which accompanies the request for New Year's wishes for the team...
VFB is on his way to the South Africa training camp. They get 250.000 Euro support from the DFL to widen the fanbase around the world. Pretty nice.
This could get interesting as on Saturday VfB will be playing PEC Zwolle, Ryan Thomas' club, in Cape Town. These are the sort of fixtures that fringe players get a run, so we could have a couple of young kiwis up against each other.
http://ajaxct.com/news.htm?article=3159
VFB Stuttgart Arrives in SA
VFB Stuttgart, the German Bundesliga side arrived in Cape Town ahead of their summer training camp at Ikamva.
The German Bundesliga team will be in Cape Town until January 16, 2014 and they are scheduled to play a number of friendly games against local and international opposition.
During their stay in Cape Town VFB Stuttgart will also visit Robben Island, Table Mountain and conduct a community scheme program in a local township.
According to the team’s Head Coach Thomas Schneider the purpose of their training camp in Cape Town is to improve the team’s form ahead of the season in Germany.
VFB Stuttgart is scheduled to play Supersport United in January 09, PEC Zwolle on January 11 and Ajax Cape Town.
The Urban Warriors will play VFB Stuttgart at Phillipi Stadium on Tuesday January 14 with kick off at 18h30.
This could get interesting as on Saturday VfB will be playing PEC Zwolle, Ryan Thomas' club, in Cape Town. These are the sort of fixtures that fringe players get a run, so we could have a couple of young kiwis up against each other.
Unfortunately, Ryan is not with the Zwolle team (or at least not so far this week) because the club understandably allowed the young lad time off with his family and friends in NZ over Xmas and New Year. Was on TV3 6pm News last week kicking a ball around on a beach up north:
Ryan didn't feature in PEC Zwolle's 2-1 win over Ajax Cape Town two days ago.
Marco is with the Stuttgart squad though:
