Western Sydney Wanderers striker Tomi Juric has no desire to leave the club despite becoming a transfer target of J-League champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
The 23-year-old is in the final year of his contract with the Wanderers and will become one of the most wanted players in the A-League this season, but says staying put is the best option for his development.
Staying put: Tomi Juric is keen to continue his development with Western Sydney.Credit: Brendan Esposito
Following failed bids by Torpedo Moscow and a Swedish club, Sanfrecce Hiroshima have reportedly signalled their interest in prying Juric away from Parramatta but are yet to submit an offer or to open formal negotiations with Western Sydney.
Should an offer arrive, it appears it would still take some convincing to lure Juric away before his Wanderers deal ends as he is in no rush to make the next move of his career.
"First of all it's just interest, nothing concrete," Juric said. "You can't get much better than what the Wanderers have this year. We're in the ACL again, we're in a great position to get to the final and the A-League season is on the way. I'm looking forward to the season ahead but obviously when the time comes for that, we'll sit down and look at those things.
"But at the moment, I'm really not interested in that and not focused on those kind of things."
Showing a maturity beyond his age, Juric has an eye on the longevity of his career, as shown by his focus on his technical development rather than on an immediate move abroad. He regards another call-up to the Socceroos squad for the friendlies against the UAE and Qatar as justification for staying put.
"Definitely, I've got a great coaching staff, great teammates, I'm feeling great and really happy to be here," Juric said. "The surroundings can't be much better than what I have, it's definitely the right place for my development and I'm looking forward to another season ahead."
His immediate goal, however, is to propel the Wanderers into the Asian Champions League final at the expense of FC Seoul on Wednesday night.
Juric is set to return to the match-day squad for the crucial second leg against FC Seoul after missing the stalemate in the South Korean capital due to suspension. He was ruled out of the match as a result of a controversial yellow card awarded for a goal celebration which, with accumulated cautions, triggered a one-match ban.
He is still frustrating having been forced out of that game but says the episode taught him a valuable lesson about continental football.
"It just made me a bit wiser basically, and it has just made me a little bit smarter. I've learnt not to do those kind of things in the champions league anyway. It definitely made me think about my performance that I will be putting on Wednesday night."
The Wanderers will ramp up their tactical preparation on Friday for what is expected to be a sellout fixture at Pirtek Stadium. Only 1500 tickets remained for sale as of Thursday afternoon.
In front of their passionate supporters and with the scoresheet still goalless, the Wanderers are confident of reaching an historic continental final.
"We're going to go out and play our game and play the attacking football that we can play," Juric said.
"We know that when we can play well, we can get a good result. The boys didn't play as well as they wanted to in Seoul but we got a great result.
"When we turn it on, we can beat anyone and we can beat anyone comfortably and that's what we're looking to do against FC Seoul on Wednesday night to get into the grand final."