Three young Australian footballers making progress at Stoke City [VIDEO]

As football in Ausralia continues to evolve, it is a sign of progress in the right direction when our young players are selected to spend time developing overseas. Outside90 takes a look at three Australian exports that are climbing through the ranks at Premier League side Stoke City.

Dominic Kurasik

It was “a very  happy moment” when Dominic Kurasik signed for Stoke back in 2011. Not many Australians get to play football in England, let alone at 14-years-old.

He was picked out from an academy that is used to scouting talent from Australia and taking them to England, after playing youth football for Berwick City. He was the only individual from the program that was signed by a Premier League club, apart from Bermudian goalkeeper Dale Eve, who also went to Stoke. Kurasik went on a number of trials over the early summer of 2011 before the Potters emerged with his signature on a two-year contract.

Though that was nearly five years ago. Kurasik is still at Stoke, but struggling to find minutes. He only played two games for the Under-21’s last season, competing with fellow academy player Eve, who is the preferred goalkeeper, as well as fellow Australian Chris Marques and Hungarian Daniel Gyollai.

The lack of Under-21 or Under-18 games is probably due to going on loan to Congleton Town FC, a team on the ninth level of the English football pyramid. The club is only located just down the road in Stoke-on-Trent so he can still train with the Potters youth players.

With Stoke recently signing a Danish goalkeeper by the name of Jakob Haugaard from FC Midtjylland, and with Jack Butland and Asmir Begovic already at the club, the road ahead to first team selection looks tough for Kurasik.

Peter Skapetis

Peter Skapetis is another Australian that is playing for Stoke’s youth team. He is already representing Australia in the national Under-23 and Under-20 teams,  and has already played for QPR’s Under-18 team. At 19-years of age he moved from Loftus Road to Stoke City for a fee of £300,000 ($620,000 AUD).

Skapetis started at Wesley College where he played for the school team from year eight to the time he was signed by Queens Park Rangers. Whilst at Wesley, he also played for South Melbourne, one of the best teams in Australia that is not featured  in the A-League.

He currently features for the Stoke Under-21 team, where he has made five appearances and scored one goal.

Chris Marques

Chris Marques signed for Stoke when he was just 16-years-old in July 2014, but luckily he had some Australians to help him settle in.

The goalkeeper from Sydney penned a two year scholarship to work with the academy along with eleven other players.

Marques was part of the Stoke City squad that won the under-17 2014 Adidas Generations Cup. Held in America, this competition is open to all MLS teams plus three special guest outfits, including Flamengo from Brazil and Guadalajara from Mexico. Stoke won the final against Real Salt Lake, although Marques was required to step into the spotlight as a penalty shootout was required. He had not conceded a goal in 140 minutes before the semi-final, and denied three Salt Lake spot-kicks as it ended 4-2 in the Potters’ favour.

Last season, he also went on loan to 10th division outfit Stafford Town, making his debut and keeping a clean sheet in a 3-0 victory over Pelsall Villa.

If Marques keeps these performances up he will be a very strong force in the years to come for Stoke City. But with a large goalkeeper list already, will he even get the chance to play in the Barclays Premier League?

For our future generations of home-grown footballers to continuously improve, overseas experience with high level clubs is a must. These three are great developing talents that down the line, could go on to show their skills both in the English top flight and the Socceroo colours. With Skapetis recovering from a knee injury and the two goalkeepers struggling to get minutes, one can only hope that luck falls their way sooner rather than later.