Central Coast Mariners midfielder Bianca Galic spoke to aleagues.com.au, telling her story from an ACL tear and NPL football, to the A-League and her international debut despite missing out on the Matildas.
Like any female footballer growing up in Australia, Bianca Galic harboured dreams of one day representing the Matildas.
But by the age of 24, Galic had sensed the dream had slipped through her fingers.
Fortunately for the Central Coast Mariners midfielder, an unexpected chance arose to fulfil her aspiration of becoming a senior international – but it meant closing the door permanently on her chances of a Matildas call-up.
In March, Galic was contacted by the Croatian Football Federation to gauge her interest in representing the nation, an opportunity made possible by her Croatian-born grandparents.
She leapt at the chance, and has never looked back.
Now, after her first two appearances for the Croatian national team, Galic hopes to inspire other Australian footballers who are eligible to represent multiple nations to follow in her footsteps should opportunities with the Matildas never arise.
“It was a massive dream to represent the Matildas and put that Australian shirt on,” Galic told aleagues.com.au.
“But not having my name in the system and not necessarily being a person of interest in the extended squad, I had to weigh up what was realistic.
“If I declined the Croatian national team opportunity, would it have come again?
“I was contacted in March this year by the Croatian Football Federation, who connected me with the national team manager. They gave me a call just to understand where my head was at, and whether I was still looking at representing Australia.
“They’d seen my history and looked at clips, and wanted to gauge my interest in that as a potential pathway, going into the Croatian system.
“For me, looking at my history, I haven’t been associated with any of the Junior Matildas, Young Matildas or anything like that. I felt I was under the radar and wasn’t picked in any development or Matildas teams.
“Now I’m 25, so it came down to if I was being looked at in terms of the Australian system, and whether there was going to be another opportunity.”
Galic’s first experience among the Croatian squad came in March; having used the camp to gauge her interest in tying her future to the national team, Galic returned to the squad in October when she made her first two senior appearances in red and white, tying her international allegiance to Croatia for good.
“In March, I didn’t have my citizenship so I wasn’t eligible to play in the Euro qualifiers they had going on at that time,” Galic explained. “But the coach said: ‘Come and have a look at the system, see if you’re interested, and see if this is something you want to be a part of’.
“At the time, weighing up both (Croatia and the Matildas), it came back to that gut feeling. I just felt in the moment it was the right time for me to challenge myself further.
“By the end of the camp, I’d spoken to the head coach and he was really happy with me. He said: ‘We want you back. We’re going to help you get your citizenship. If you love it here, we want you here’.
“I lodged everything for citizenship and was called up into the next camp. We played Northern Ireland in European qualifiers, drew one and lost the second unfortunately in extra time, so that cut our qualification short.
“But coming back to whether I felt it was the right decision, I look back now with no regrets… I was so proud to be able to represent a national team.
“I knew my grandparents would be so excited, my family in Croatia were so excited, as were my parents and everyone I know here. I saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
An important factor in Galic’s decision to commit to Croatia was her understanding that in football, opportunities can disappear as quickly as they arise.
Galic captured the attention of Croatian selectors after the best season of her career to date. She was the only Mariners player to feature in every single game of the club’s 2023-24 Ninja A-League campaign, and won the Mariners Medal for her efforts.
Everything Galic achieved in her first year at the club was made all the more impressive by the context of it being her comeback campaign after an ACL tear that sidelined her through the season prior.
“No one really knows in terms of this ACL injury problem that went on, whether that could happen again, or something else could happen,” Galic said.
“I just thought coming off such a long injury, I have to take every opportunity that comes and try and make the most of it when it’s there, because you really don’t know who is watching and the opportunities that will then bring in terms of overseas opportunities.”
Galic’s introduction to the Croatian national team appears to have sparked interest among Croatian selectors in Australian talent.
This week, 20-year-old Perth Glory midfielder Tijan McKenna received her first senior Croatian call-up, having previously represented the Young Matildas.
Encouraged by McKenna’s Croatian selection, Galic believes more pathways are opening for talented young Australians, and that a continuation of the trend could lead to Matildas selectors keeping a closer eye on the players emerging in the Ninja A-League in years to come.
“I think my step into the national team probably sparked interest within other players to then go: ‘Okay, well if Australia is not calling, where else can I go?’” Galic said.
“I know other players like Vesna Milivojevic moved over there, and she’s flourishing for Serbia and playing in Europe.”
“When we look at the Matildas, they’ve been doing so well for so long and it’s great they’re now looking at the league to offer support. All the girls coming through, the Junior Matildas and Young Matildas, they’re coming into the A-League and some are getting disheartened because they’re not getting called up to the Matildas as early as they’d like.
“But if we compare our league to European leagues, the peak age is usually 27, 28 or 29. In general, we are in that younger age group. I think it’s such a good time now for younger A-League prospects to make a stand for themselves in Matildas camps and get that taste, because the bridge is there, if they can get that right and those players are supported, the future of the Matildas will have that ongoing rollover of success.
“In the recent Matildas camp, they called up some really good A-League players to come through and get an opportunity that maybe wasn’t necessarily offered a couple of years ago when they needed a little bit of a transition.”
The decision to represent Croatia required Galic to take a leap of faith – much like the one she took in mid-2023 when deciding on a Ninja A-League club to relaunch her career following one season sidelined by her ACL tear.
Galic spoke to aleagues.com.au while en route to her job outside of football, where she works as a physiotherapist; knowing all too well just what it takes to recover from an ACL injury, Galic committed to a rigorous rehabilitation program before returning to action at Sydney University – the NPL club in New South Wales she’s called home since her early teens.
Her coach at Sydney Uni in 2023 was none other than Emily Husband who, after taking on the head coach role at the Mariners, convinced Galic to join her squad for Central Coast’s first season back in the Ninja A-League since 2009.
It was a comeback season for the Mariners and Galic’s campaign followed the same story arc; she played 25 games in the heart of Central Coast’s midfield as the Mariners reached the Semi-Finals.
“I actually came back from the ACL injury on my birthday, May 14th, which was my goal,” Galic said.
“I came back at Sydney Uni; I’ve actually been there since I was 14 years old, so quite a long while. I made my return to the NPL there, got my confidence back, got the consistency in terms of game fitness, and it was within that transition when I had a more serious conversation with Em about Central Coast, what the vision looked like and what role she saw me playing within that.
“For me, it was a decision of whether I wanted to stay somewhere in Sydney like Western Sydney Wanderers where I was previously, or take a leap of faith, see the vision and contribute to it.
“When you’re in that moment, you get that feeling in your stomach of what to go with and that was the best opportunity for me at that time – especially coming back from a major injury.”
“The full year of rehab I did for the ACL paid off. There were definitely days in months four, seven, eight or whatever it was when I showed up to the gym or the training pitch and didn’t want to be there – but I had that end goal in sight.
“That was one of the hardest rehabs I did but it was the one I wanted to stay compliant to. I’m a physiotherapist, so I thought I had to stay true to my profession and do the rehab properly as well. It felt right to me to do it once and do it right.
“I came back stronger with the aim to prevent any niggles or anything else popping up post-ACL because it is quite common for people to have arthroscopes and little things come up after a big surgery. I was very, very happy I didn’t have to go through any of that last season. I wasn’t surprised because I knew how much hard work and effort I had put into it, but at the end of the day it was really nice to be recognised with the Mariners Medal.
“When I look back now, I have no regrets. I definitely think it was the right environment for me post-injury and even now, being a leader within the team as well just shows that the girls believe in me, the coaching staff believe in me and that culture we spoke about is being lived out now.
“We got those results last season because of that. We didn’t have the big names of the league and all the Matildas but we had people there who worked hard, and put their hearts on their sleeve every game. That’s what got us as far as we did.”
