Slobode Stojcevski was ready to draw the curtain on his distinguished soccer career at the end of last season. Then he took a surprise phone call from Williamstown asking for him to undertake one last mission.
The competitive juices began to flow again for the 53-year-old after the contact with the Blues and he accepted the coaching role.
“I was probably ready to retire at the end of last season with Green Gully,” Stojcevski told Star Weekly.
“When Williamstown approached me, they spoke about the challenge they’d like to hand me and the ambition they had. It got me excited about coaching again.
“I didn’t want to take a role for the sake of taking a role. That’s not what it’s about.”
Williamstown resides in the FFV’s state league 3 competition – effectively the fifth division of Victorian soccer and hardly seen as a drawcard to lure talented young players.
Stojcevski, fresh from a head coaching role with Green Gully in the top-tier NPL, was brought in with a view to taking the Blues to the next level.
The Blues don’t want to stop at one promotion; they want to get to the top of the state leagues.
“I like the challenge of getting a team up the ladder. That’s always something that ticks with me,” says Stojcevski, who has played and coached at the highest level in this country.
A utility who spent time in all three areas of the ground, he played for Footscray JUST in the old National Soccer League and spent more than a decade as a coach at Green Gully in development and senior coaching roles. He also knows the state leagues, having played and coached at the level before.
“They’re looking for that bit of experience to get the right group of players together and help guide them up the ladder,” Stojcevski said.
“That’s what I’ll be doing. That’s my ambition, that’s their ambition.
“Division 3 is not an exciting league for young players to want to go to and I’ve been involved with clubs in divvy three and four in the past and I know that’s the case.
“Most young players want to go to NPL or a state 1, so you really need to get into those prominent leagues to attract younger players.”
