Content material warning: This story incorporates descriptions of conflict that could also be distressing for some readers.
Miloš Degenek can nonetheless hear the sirens.
Some days, he solely had a couple of minutes to collect his issues and run because the the air-raid audio system wailed round him, every cycle counting down like a warped, ghostly clock.
He can nonetheless really feel the chilly rush of air from the underground bunkers the place he and his household would flee, clattering down the steps and spilling into darkish, windowless rooms.
He can style the metallic canned meals they survived on for days at a time and the low whispers of different households comforting one another within the shadows.
He can hear these haunting sirens pierced by means of by whistling warheads and the deep rumble of distant bombs as they introduced down bridges and buildings.
He can nonetheless see the our bodies, the rubble, the hearth, the smoke.
And he can nonetheless really feel Đorđe, his older brother, quiet and shivering by his aspect.
It is 1999 in Aranđelovac, a small city simply south of Belgrade, and Degenek is six years outdated. He’s studying way more in regards to the world than any little boy ought to must.
In 1999, NATO forces led by america performed a bombing marketing campaign throughout Serbia’s capital and its surrounding cities.(Getty Photographs: Pool Interagences/Gamma-Rapho)
“These issues are fairly tough to elucidate to individuals who have not lived by means of it,” Degenek informed ABC.
“It is these issues the place you do not know whether or not your constructing’s gonna get hit, whether or not you are going to come out otherwise you’re not going to come back out.
“I do not want that upon anybody. I want that the world might usually dwell in a pleasant, protected surroundings for everybody and that we might all respect our personal folks, international locations, cultures, non secular views, beliefs.
“There’s all the time going to be those who disagree. However we do not have to disagree to the [extent] that we will begin a conflict. We are able to disagree on issues, however let’s disagree in a method that afterwards, we will shake fingers and stroll away.
“These issues form you into the particular person that you’re at present. They make you perceive the world differently.
“I’ve lived by means of fairly a bit.”
Degenek’s story is like that of many generations of Australians in that it didn’t begin in Australia in any respect.
Born in modern-day Croatia to Serbian dad and mom, Degenek was one in all over 300,000 individuals who fled their houses throughout the Kosovo Battle within the late Nineties.
As Yugoslavia fell aside, thousands and thousands of individuals grew to become displaced all through Europe in what grew to become the deadliest battle since World Battle II.(Getty Photographs: Gamma-Rapho/Georges Merillon)
They evacuated Knin throughout ‘Operation Storm’ when he was nonetheless a child, leaving the whole lot they owned behind them.
It was a “very lengthy, very disagreeable journey” led by his father, Dušan, and his mom, Nada. They spent over every week using a tractor into neighbouring Serbia with nothing however milk, bread, and two suitcases filled with treasured issues.
Degenek sees a number of himself in his father. Dušan was a well-known runner again in Yugoslavia, a nationwide champion within the 800 metres.
He’s a stoic man, an immovable pillar, and taught his sons quite a bit about drive and willpower and dedication to one thing greater than your self. He would not like to speak in regards to the conflict, and neither does Miloš.
Dušan met Nada when he labored as an electrician within the manufacturing unit the place she was a seamstress. After their first interplay, he was so shy he did not communicate to her once more for six months. His first query to her throughout their subsequent dialog was, “so, are we going out or not?”
After Miloš was born in 1994, they tried to protect their two younger sons from the violence erupting round Yugoslavia.
Miloš remembers simply being a child in Knin, kicking a soccer round with Đorđe and his associates, utilizing two timber that they had within the entrance yard as purpose posts.
They performed marbles and tag and hide-and-go-seek, spending afternoons working and wrestling and climbing and laughing, unaware of the horrors unfolding simply over the mountains.
Miloš Degenek (left) along with his father Dušan and his older brother Đorđe (proper) within the mid-Nineties.(Equipped: Miloš Degenek)
They thought they’d be protected in Serbia after leaving Croatia, however the conflict adopted them like a lengthy shadow. They lived in limbo close to Belgrade for a number of months earlier than fleeing once more after NATO forces bombed town.
This time, they needed to maneuver as distant from all of it as attainable.
“That was the sacrifice my dad and mom took – to go away their consolation zone, which was Serbia, the place they knew the whole lot and everybody – to go away that and go to Australia and risking the whole lot for me and my brother, so we might have a greater life,” Degenek mentioned.
“I am very grateful to Australia for permitting us to truly come into the nation, which then allowed my dad and mom to begin work, which permits us to study the language, to get education, to fulfill folks. It allowed my brother to have a college diploma and allowed me to turn out to be a footballer.
“I am 28 years outdated now. I’ve obtained a spouse, I’ve obtained a child, I’ve obtained a second child on the best way. My brother’s obtained a spouse and a child, my dad and mom are wholesome; they’re grandparents now.
“Whenever you undergo exhausting issues, life type of comes again at you and offers you different lovely issues.”
Because it was for a lot of European migrants arriving in Australia all through the twentieth century, soccer was a method of reconnecting with their scattered group, and growing a way of belonging and identification in a brand new, alien nation.
Whereas his dad and mom labored achingly-long hours — Nada as a dishwasher and cleaner, Dušan as a carpenter — they all the time made time for Degenek’s soccer.
He remembers standing on the road exterior their Campsie residence, in Sydney’s western suburbs, his soccer gear packed into one bag and lunch for his dad in one other.
Dušan would swing by, Miloš would bounce in, and his dad would eat with one hand and drive with the opposite as he took his son to coaching at Blacktown Metropolis and Bonnyrigg White Eagles.
Miloš (proper) and Đorđe (left) arrived in Australia in 2000, settling within the western Sydney suburb of Campsie.(Equipped: Miloš Degenek)
They might get up on Sunday mornings and watch Serie A or the Champions League collectively on SBS tv. Degenek was mesmerised at how far the gamers might kick the ball and the truth that 50,000 folks repeatedly crammed into stadiums to observe 22 folks run round for 90 minutes.
Nevertheless it wasn’t till he attended his first soccer match in individual that he had his light-bulb second. His dad was there for that, too: they visited Serbia when Degenek was older and purchased tickets to observe Purple Star Belgrade, the membership they grew up supporting.
Till then, soccer had simply been a passion, one thing to do on weekends. However standing within the Rajko Mitić Stadium with 30,000 different folks, watching the group that meant a lot to so many, he determined then and there that he needed to play soccer professionally.
“It was like again within the day with the Colosseum,” he mentioned.
“The fellows would battle, folks could be round, they usually’re there for the leisure.
“I sit there in awe and typically I simply take into consideration how a lot I respect the those who go and watch these video games.
“You go to a soccer recreation in Europe or South America or no matter […] there’s 50,000 folks simply sitting there and watching that recreation. And that recreation must be particular. If it’s week-in, week-out, 50,000 folks doing that … that must be particular. It could’t be only a recreation. It’s greater than a recreation.
“As I realized throughout COVID, soccer was the second most necessary factor on the planet – after well being and household. It’s soccer. Even in occasions of conflict, in occasions of melancholy, in occasions of disaster, folks performed soccer.
“I feel there’s tales from World Battle II the place completely different armies would play as a result of they had been bored with taking pictures at one another. It’s the factor that unites everybody. It’s a recreation that’s performed in each nation on the planet; there’s not a spot on the planet you may go to that there’s not a soccer pitch, a ball, a purpose – wherever.
“These moments, after I went with my father to observe Purple Star Belgrade, 15 years later to have the ability to play for the membership is a good greater ‘wow’. It was my dream come true, my household’s dream come true, all our relations’ goals come true.”
Degenek performed 79 matches for Purple Star Belgrade between 2018 and 2022, together with enjoying UEFA Champions League matches.(Getty Photographs: Srdjan Stevanovic)
That second took him all over the world as a footballer: to Germany and Japan, Serbia and Saudi Arabia, and now america the place he performs with Main League Soccer aspect, Columbus Crew.
However whereas his membership life has various, Degenek has by no means wavered in his final purpose — discovering a approach to give again to the nation that gave him and his household their futures.
“I used to be eligible to play for Serbia, however I solely had concepts to play for Australia as a result of this nation gave my household an opportunity,” he mentioned.
“I most likely will not be capable of repay Australia again for giving my household an opportunity to maneuver in, to begin work, to purchase a home. I can not pay Australia again in any formal method. One of the best I can do is after I play, to play to one of the best of my talents, to attempt to win, and to maintain the people who find themselves watching comfortable.
“Japanese European individuals are usually identified to be very exhausting, [but] all of us have large hearts and are very emotional. We’re very cussed and really naive, however we by no means quit and by no means give in. We shield the issues that we love with our life.
“If it wasn’t for this nation, I would not be who I’m. My dad and mom would not be the folks they’re. And I feel my life would have spiralled on to be no matter else aside from being a sportsperson.
“That is why I am very grateful for it; it is why, for me, it is probably the greatest international locations on the planet, as a result of it is given so many individuals of huge backgrounds the possibility to thrive.”
Degenek (left) takes inspiration from former Socceroos who’ve related migrant histories like former captain Mile Jedinak (proper).(Getty Photographs: Daniel Kalisz)
Taking part in for the Socceroos has been the head of that, and Degenek is proud of carrying on the legacy created by fellow European migrants who’ve represented Australia earlier than him like Mark Viduka, Rale Rasic, and Mile Jedinak, who was a selected anchor for Miloš when he debuted in 2016.
“There’s so many individuals of Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian backgrounds who had been a part of the Socceroos,” he mentioned.
“It’s one thing I feel each technology of Socceroos has had – one particular person from the Japanese European area – so it’s all the time been a basis a part of the Socceroos.
“It reveals that Australia is a multicultural nation and a rustic that’s opened its arms to lots of people from a war-affected area.
A variety of these guys, whether or not they left after I left or whether or not they left throughout the second World Battle, a number of them and their [families] left the nation searching for a greater life, which is a credit score to them and a testomony to all the fellows that performed for the Socceroos.
“That’s why the Socceroos are so particular. As a result of it’s such a multicultural surroundings and so lots of the guys [have] come from completely different international locations exterior of Australia, but Australia has type of adopted us and we’ve adopted Australia.”
He could not be capable of give again to Australia ‘formally’, however he does what he can in his personal small methods.
Earlier than the Socceroos performed New Zealand in a pleasant final month, for instance, Degenek observed one of many mascots lining up within the tunnel, an 11-year-old named William, had a incapacity that made it tough to stroll.
Degenek selected to stroll out with William onto Lang Park for the anthems, holding him tight as they sang collectively. He desires the household to know they’ll attain out to him for any cause, and that he’d prefer to cowl the prices to fly them to wherever in Australia the Socceroos play subsequent.
Degenek and his mascot, William, earlier than a pleasant in opposition to New Zealand in Brisbane.(Equipped: Ann Odong)
These are his small ‘thank yous’ to a rustic that has given him a lot.
“It is me being a human, you understand?” he mentioned.
“You wish to assist one another. For me, that was a very nice second. I hope I made them comfortable in a method, if I might, just a bit bit.
“I am an individual that, if I used to be a billionaire, I might most likely not be one [for long] as a result of I might very simply give the whole lot to folks so they might dwell comfortably.
“If I’ve a roof and a automobile, meals and water, I would like everybody else to have the identical. Everybody deserves to have the identical; no life is much less or extra invaluable than some other.
“We’re all people. Simply our roads took a distinct path. I wasn’t lucky sufficient to be born right into a royal household, however I used to be lucky sufficient to be born as a standard one that’s very hard-headed and has obtained a dream and a imaginative and prescient and desires to succeed. And that is what I’ve performed.”
This story is a part of ABC Sport’s “Socceroos In The Highlight” sequence within the build-up to the 2022 males’s World Cup. You may learn half one on Mitch Duke right here, half two on Ajdin Hrustic right here, and half three on Aziz Behich right here.
Originally published at Gold Coast News HQ
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