The game has been my life since the age of five and I just couldn’t walk away from it

“The game has been my life since the age of five and I just couldn’t walk away from it.”The son of Croatian immigrants, Joe and Mary, he was brought up in St Albans, a working-class suburb of Melbourne. The area was home to 50,000 Croatians and it was inevitable the young Viduka would favour the European game rather than Aussie rules football. He played for Melbourne Croatia under-9s and later moved to the much-vaunted Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, from where he “graduated” aged 18. Despite overtures from Borussia Dortmund, he was persuaded to join Croatia Zagreb by the club’s president, the late Franjo Tudjman, who unfortunately for Viduka, was also the country’s detested political leader. After 50 years of Communism, Tudjman represented the unacceptable face of radicalism “I couldn’t refuse,” Viduka says.

“I felt it was my calling.”You must understand I have feelings for both countries. Although I was born and raised in Australia, I also have a Croatian heritage.” He scored 41 goals in 75 appearances, but then his form dipped, along with the popularity of Tudjman and he became regarded as the president’s pet He was spat at in the street and his car was vandalised. “The Croatians are very expressive people,” Viduka explains wryly “The stress built up and I had run-ins with supporters. Yet, I had risked my career by going to the war-torn country of my heritage. That’s why the treatment I received hurt so much.”His “escape” to Celtic came initially as a blessed relief.

However, it took four months to negotiate because of complications over the £3m fee, half of which was reportedly due to him. When he arrived at Celtic Park, Viduka had two days to prepare for a game against Hearts “I couldn’t switch off what I’d been through,” he says. “I didn’t know anyone and I felt physically and mentally drained.” The ensuing seven-week hiatus proved to be his salvation When he returned, Viduka was a man reborn “I focused all my energies on doing well,” he reflects. “I was very pleased with my overall game for Celtic last season. Apart from the goals, I set up a lot of chances for team-mates. At the beginning Celtic was a tough time for me, but I’ve put it all behind me.

I see all that period as a learning part of my career and my life.”O’Leary hopes to be the beneficiary now that Viduka has successfully done so. The player is not completely match fit, having only played one-and-a-half games during a pre-season tour of Sweden. In the first, deployed alongside Kewell, he scored a hat-trick in the 7-1 defeat of Lysekils. In his second, he aggravated an ankle injury originally sustained with Celtic. But he hopes to play in Wednesday’s Champions’ League qualifier against 1860 Munich, who include his international room-mate at the 1996 Olympics, his fellow striker Paul Agostino.O’Leary no doubt hopes that Viduka can have an effect this season similar to the one Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink once produced, and already speaks of the two Australians playing together up front as “a very exciting partnership”.

The manager’s only concern is that injuries may force him to thrust Viduka into such contests quicker than his fitness should allow. The emergence of Kewell and Viduka has increased the game’s profile dramatically in their homeland. “Hopefully, by producing top-class players, it will inspire the younger players in Australia. They’ll be saying, ‘Gee, if they can do it, why can’t we?’” Viduka says. “Before, there was nobody of this quality playing in Europe.”In the Eighties, he and his father were avid viewers of the exploits of John Barnes (who was to become his coach at Celtic), Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle.