Marco Rojas
Marco Rojas at VfB Training (2013 )
Marco Rodrigo Rojas (born 5 November 1991 Hamilton) is a New Zealand football player of Chilean descent. Rojas played from 2009 to 2013 Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne Victory in the A-League, where he was in 2013 awarded the Johnny Warren Medal as player of the year. Since 2011 he is also active for the New Zealand national team and took 2012 with the Olympic Team at the Olympic Games in the UK part. For the 2013/14 season moved to VfB Stuttgart Rojas.
Club career
Rojas came in 2003 to the Academy of Wynton Rufer Soccer School of Excellence in Hamilton, a company founded by former New Zealand exceptional footballer Wynton Rufer facility. In the following years, Rojas played several times with the Academy team in international tournaments, has also appeared in Chile in CF Universidad de Chile and Colo -Colo and graduated in 2008 in Germany tryouts at Borussia Monchengladbach, Hannover 96 and Werder Bremen.
As early as 2007 played Rojas on the side of same- Chris Wood for Hamilton Wanderers in the Northern League, the highest regional league in the northern part of New Zealand's North Island, and came in the traditional Chatham Cup for scoring. In the 2008 /09 season he is also playing for Waikato FC in the New Zealand Football Championship, the top division of the country, where it was used in 13 of the 14 season games.
In March 2009, Rojas was announced as the winner of the Yellow Fever Youth Scholarship. This privately -funded Yellow Fever, the Supporters Association of the A - League clubs Wellington Phoenix, scholarship worth NZ $ 5,000, allowed Rojas for a week with the professional team Wellington Phoenix to train. Rojas was convinced by the coaching staff and was invited to a further trial, in which he also came in a preseason game against Melbourne Victory, a field that the equalizer for a 1-1 draw with prepared.
The offensive player finally got a professional contract for two years with Phoenix and gave 13 September 2009 against Melbourne Victory debut in the A-League. Overall, Rojas came in his first professional season to four inserts per Substitutes. For the season 2011/12 he moved to Melbourne Victory.
His first year at Melbourne Victory was mixed, Rojas remained throughout the course of the season without a hit and missed with Victory a place in the play-offs. In the following season under new coach Ange Postecoglou Rojas increased noticeably, with Archie Thompson made a dangerous Offensivduo, scored 15 league goals during the season and reached the semifinals of the playoffs. At the end of the season he was voted by the players of the A-League with a big lead before Alessandro Del Piero the best player of the season and won the Johnny Warren Medal, in addition he also won the Rising Star Award for best young player in the league. Shortly after the end of the season, it was announced that Rojas will leave the club in the season break to go to Europe. The term of his contract with Melbourne Victory ended on 30 April 2013.
On May 8, 2013 Rojas signed with VfB Stuttgart a dated until the end of June 2017 contract by which he was eligible to play from the 2013/14 season for the Swabians.
National
Rojas made his debut on 25 March 2011 under Ricki Herbert, who until early 2013 was from 2007 in personal union coach of the national team and Wellington Phoenix, in the New Zealand national team in a friendly match against China. A few months later, he took the New Zealand U -20 team after successful Oceania qualifying to the World Cup finals in Colombia in part, failed there but after draws against Cameroon and Uruguay due to a 0-1 defeat in their final group game against Portugal already in the previous round. In late summer 2012, he belonged to the squad of the New Zealand Olympic Team at the Olympic Games in the UK. There he was in all three group matches to the starting lineup, the New Zealand selection missed after defeats against Belarus and Brazil, and a draw against Egypt but made it into the knockout round.
In June 2012, he surprisingly took with New Zealand at the Ozeanienmeisterschaft part, as by a semi-final defeat against New Caledonia qualification for the Confederations Cup 2013 was missed. In 2013 he reached the playoff games with New Zealand for the World Cup 2014 in Brazil.
Awards
- PFA Harry Kewell Medal ( U-23 Player of the Year in Australia): 2012/13
- Johnny Warren Medal ( Player of the year in Australia): 2012/13