Melbourne Victory midfielder Grant Brebner has agreed to extend his contract with the club for a further 12 months.
Melbourne Victory midfielder Grant Brebner has agreed to extend his contract with the club for a further 12 months.
The 32-year-old Scot, who has been with the club for four seasons, was delighted to have secured his future, especially with his Australian citizenship set to be finalised this year.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t playing on my mind. When you are coming out of contract, it’s always something that’s at the back of your mind. Thankfully it’s put to bed now and I’ve got another season sorted out,” he said.
“To stay with Melbourne Victory was important. It would have been a real wrench to leave the club especially with the success we’ve had. The citizenship is something I want to get cemented and once that comes in, it’s beneficial for both myself and the club.”
Victory football operations manager Gary Cole said Brebner’s signature was an important step in keeping the experienced core of the club together.
“Grant’s an experienced player with two premierships, two championships and a pre-season trophy under his belt. Obviously this will be his second run in the Asian Champions League so his experience is invaluable for us,” Cole said. “It’s fantastic for us and it’s fantastic for Brebs.”
“He’s been Aussie Brebs for a while, but his citizenship comes up in I think June or July. He will then be an Australian for the next A-League season.”
Cole praised Brebner’s character after the veteran battled his way through injury last season to get back to his best.
“I think Brebs went through a real tough season last year with his osteitis, and he’s fought back fantastically well from that. Until he injured his ankle recently, I think he was in as good a form as he’s been in, since he’s been at the club. That for us was good enough,” Cole said.
The player himself hopes to play beyond the 12-month deal, but is happy to take it one season at a time after believing at one time that he would never play again.
“Twelve months is fair to the club and it’s fair to myself. I’ve always said that if you perform these sort of things take care of themselves. I’ve got 12 months to make another impression and if I do that, whatever happens in the future will happen,” he said.
“If you had have asked me two years ago when I had my osteitis, I was 50-50 to play again. I’m enjoying playing again and it’s a fantastic club to play your football at.”
Brebner said that while there had been some interests from other club, his intention was always to remain with Victory.
“It wasn’t something that came up. When Gary came to me with a contract offer, it wasn’t even a second before making a decision to re-sign.”
Brebner is set to celebrate his new deal with a return to the starting XI for Saturday night’s game against Perth. With Matthew Kemp injured, Brebner will make his first start since the 4-0 win over Gold Coast in November.
