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Jonatan Germano


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Germano loving life in 'paradise'

Tuesday, 19 March 2013 10:21 AM

 

Life in Australia seems to agree with Melbourne Heart midfielder Jonatan Germano.

The 25-year-old Argentine arrived in Melbourne almost two years ago for a trial with the fledgling club, which was just a few months removed from its maiden A-League season.

Speaking to Germano, his fondness for his new home is clear.

He has an affinity for Australia where football can mean four different things, because - growing up in the small Argentine city of San Nicolas - Germano only ever had one choice.

"From when you're a child, you're exposed to playing football out on the streets - it's the only thing you want to do growing up in a small city," he said.

"You just spend all your time with a ball, out on the streets, at home, in the lounge room - everywhere."

Germano sounds well and truly settled in his adopted home, and cites the relatively low crime rate as one of the reasons he is happy to be here with his girlfriend and young son.

"It's like a paradise," he said. "You don't have to worry when you walk down the street thinking someone's going to rob you, which happens in Argentina.

"You don't have to think about what you're wearing, and think about dressing down to suit the environment you're in. It's a paradise for family life."

Germano is part of the A-League's new wave of Argentine talent, starring Adelaide United duo Marcelo Carrusca and Jeronimo Neumann and featuring Melbourne Victory forward Marcos Flores.

Germano, Carrusca and Jeronimo all spent time together at Argentine club Estudiantes before forging their paths overseas, and their bond has become stronger now they are each plying their trade in the A-League.

"When I was at Estudiantes, I was in the youth team and Carrusca was in the first team," Germano said.

"I knew him to say hello to, but we didn't cross paths much because I was still in the junior team and we didn't train at the same time.

"Now that we're both here in Australia, there's a friendship there.

"Jeronimo was in the first team too, we only played a couple of practice matches against each other, but since moving here we've become closer and we'll have a bit of a chat after games.

"I don't have any extra rivalry with the Argentine boys. For me, it doesn't matter what nationality they are. My goal is just to win for my team."

Perhaps the compatriot he's closest to, however, is Flores.

Although they play on opposite sides of what is an intense club rivalry, Germano and the Victory man put their footballing differences aside to socialise.

"I catch up with Flores - being in the same city makes it convenient," Germano said.

"We catch up for coffee, a meal and talk about life in general."

Germano rates Flores as one of the more difficult assignments in the A-League, ranking him alongside Carrusca and Brisbane's Thomas Broich as some of tougher opponents.

But when quizzed on who the best player he has come up against is, Germano barely hesitates.

"Del Piero," he said grinning.

"He's strong, you can't knock him knock him off the ball easy.

"He thinks 10 seconds ahead. He knows where to find space - how to hit it, where to hit it. It's very difficult to get the ball off him once he's in control."

Germano spent four years at Estudiantes, with loan spells in Croatia and Paraguay along the way, and said his time there was instrumental in his development.

The midfielder said Diego Simeone - who was in charge of Estudiantes when he signed - was one of the more influential coaches he has had the privilege of working with, and tipped Heart boss John Aloisi to have a distinguished managerial career.

"Simeone is one of the coaches who had a big impact on my career. He gave me my first opportunity as a first-team player, I spent a year under him," he said.

"John Aloisi will be a big coach. He brings a lot of what he had as a player into football and a lot of things he's learned. He'll have a really good coaching career."

And Germano wants to be around to see Aloisi realise that potential and lead the Heart up the A-League standings, saying the Heart faithful are yet to see his best football.

"I'm content, but I'm disappointed by a few injuries and setbacks I've had," he said.

"I believe I can go a lot further than what I've been able to show this season."

 

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news-display/germano-loving-life-in--paradise-/63049

 

Edited by Red or Dead
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need to re-sign him asap. He's a great player and seems settled and comfortable in melbourne which is very important for foreign players to be able to perform well and keep improving.

 

IMO he's one of the most skillful players we have in the team, as his first touch, crossing, passing, shooting, use of non-preferred foot, heading, is at quite a high level (better than some players in the league who are on 200k+ a season), and is exactly at what should be expected at a-league level and as a professional footballer.

 

Unfortunately he's had an interupted season with his injury which had him out for pretty much half of the season, but there's no doubt we look much better with him in the midfield. He's a a very good age, and should be hitting his peak soon while also being able to improve.

 

A very handy player to have nonetheless, and especially since he's on low wages, we'd be stupid not to re-sign him because there's not many of players like him going around.

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Should be the 1st name on the teamsheet every week. Does the 1%ers that go un-noticed a lot of the time, chasing the ball everyone else thinks is a lost cause, closing down space, pushing onto the ball carrier, etc.

 

Unfortunately he's had to play with a midfield that has been sub-par this season. I would love to see him in the middle with Richie and Meeuwis to see how they go.

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He is 25 and a couple of months. I would guess that the article on him is the prelude to an announcement that he has re-signed.

 

Don't think there's much doubt that we'd benefit from having a settled first-choice midfield so that the players can develop an understanding.

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It would be nice to finally have a settled player

Exactly. If his joined by Walker, Vrankovic, Redmayne, Gerhardt and Gol Gol as Heart players for the next 3 to 4 years. They'd make up a real strong core group of players all with plenty of football in front of them.

A group that could have a lot of success at our club.

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  • 7 months later...

Time for a bump, given the number of comments about JG on other topics.

 

Difficult to imagine Germano still being at the club once Engleaar returns from injury.  Basically I think "we" hoped he would come good with an injury free pre-season but all that happened was that he got injured again.  With a perpetual 3 weeks till he's back the only saving grace is his minimal salary. 

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Time for a bump, given the number of comments about JG on other topics.

 

Difficult to imagine Germano still being at the club once Engleaar returns from injury.  Basically I think "we" hoped he would come good with an injury free pre-season but all that happened was that he got injured again.  With a perpetual 3 weeks till he's back the only saving grace is his minimal salary. 

The problem is that if they release him there'll be pressure from the fans to sign another foreign player and he will likely cost more money than we are paying Germano.

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Time for a bump, given the number of comments about JG on other topics.

 

Difficult to imagine Germano still being at the club once Engleaar returns from injury.  Basically I think "we" hoped he would come good with an injury free pre-season but all that happened was that he got injured again.  With a perpetual 3 weeks till he's back the only saving grace is his minimal salary. 

The problem is that if they release him there'll be pressure from the fans to sign another foreign player and he will likely cost more money than we are paying Germano.

 

That would be Migliorini signing on full-time..

(Other 4, Mifsud, Engelaar, Wieleart, Gerhardt)

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always liked germano as a player, when he's fit he's one of our best and is very versatile

 

It's a difficult situation because of his injuries. I don't think the club will release him right now because we simply don't have enough money at the moment to be paying off players and signing new ones in the hope they will be better. Even more difficult if he returns from injury and gets back to his good form that saw him a regular in the starting 11, and considering the wages he's on it's hard to find players of that quality to be playing on minimum wage.

 

He's still at a fairly good age and has plenty of football left in him, despite having a few injuries lately. Also he isn't too far away from being considered a non-visa player (i think), so maybe that's something else to consider

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Is this bloke any danger of kicking a ball in danger ever again?

Forgotten he was even on the books tbh

The Hartman of the A League. :up:

 

He played in the first game in Perth in pre season and was fat, unfit and fucking shite.

Sounds like Peter Sumich when he was made to find some form at Souf. :up:

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According to Wikipedia has played in 54 senior games since 2007 - 35 of those with Heart.

 

Not exactly an impressive record.

 

But he's just one player who brings the focus back on to our record with injuries and WTF we use our off-season for.

Edited by jw1739
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According to Wikipedia has played in 54 senior games since 2007 - 35 of those with Heart.

 

No exactly an impressive record.

 

But he's just one player who brings the focus back on to our record with injuries and WTF we use our off-season for.

I like germano, but it is a concern. pointless having a guy that's always injured or trying to get to full fitness. I think if he doesn't get fit soon and STAYS fit then he has to go !

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According to Wikipedia has played in 54 senior games since 2007 - 35 of those with Heart.

 

No exactly an impressive record.

 

But he's just one player who brings the focus back on to our record with injuries and WTF we use our off-season for.

I like germano, but it is a concern. pointless having a guy that's always injured or trying to get to full fitness. I think if he doesn't get fit soon and STAYS fit then he has to go !

 

Or cut him loose now. This kind of "give them yet another chance on top of all the ones they've already had" way of thinking is why we are at the bottom of the ladder. 

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Never visa quality.

An interesting statement.

 

My idea of visa quality is "better than what we can get locally".  In his first season, after a slow start, he showed signs he might be just that.  By the end of the season he was playing well and making us all take notice.  Not socceroos material, but good enough to get a run in any side in the comp i reckon (more or less).  You could argue a player like that would be hard to sign locally.

 

Last year he was injured for half of it, then came out and looked abominable.  Supported by a manager with more faith then sense, he stayed in the side and eventually lifted from terrible to mediocre by season's end.  On the promise of that first season he was re-signed, seemingly on the basis that he'd be better if he had a decent pre-season.  At present the only possibly reason you would pay him out early (this is what I assume happens when you "release" a player) is so we can sign someone else.  We desperately need a fit, classy #10, but these are hard to find and not cheap.  

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Germano is a perfect example of a series of poor recruitment and re-signing decisions that the club has made. We did the right thing at the start be giving him a month's trial, and he came though that well. His first season was fine, but as Shahanga says, the second was a shocker. It was clear that he had some longer-term injury potential, and on that basis he should not have been re-signed.

 

The club seems to have a blind spot when it comes to looking at things on a trend basis. Overall, it is not a good idea to sign players with a history of injuries. Yes, you may get it right sometimes - for example Garcia - but on the balance of probabilities you won't.

 

We do the same thing with on-field performance. Over-analyse the latest game and pay insufficient attention to the trend. We are persisting with a style of play, and with out-of-form players in unsuitable positions in this insane belief that if we repeat the same things for long enough then the results will go our way.

 

We are at a very low point, and quite frankly I think we deserve to be there because we have made a series of poor management decisions.

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Honestly its only recently we have re-signed players with injury potential - early on we let a number walk eg Sarkies, Zahra etc.  I don't have a huge problem with the club signing say 1 player per season who they have injury concerns about, especially if the upside on that player is huge, but with a squad of 23 you can't have too many and even more so if you train on a cow paddock.  

 

This year we have at least 4 you'd worry about (Kewell, Mehbratu, Kisnorbo & Germano). 

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