Jai Ivelja is talented in more ways than one; enjoying playing football, working as a personal trainer, and the Hurlstone Park Wanderers goalkeeper is also passionate about acting.
Words by Clement Tito
Being Sydney born and bred, Ivelja has enjoyed stints at Inter Lions SC and Concord JSC, and he’s now ticked off nearly three years at Hurlstone Park.
Ivelja enjoys keeping himself busy, juggling a role as a personal trainer and footballer, loves acting and his hopeful of pursuing a career in that field.
“I was always involved in some sort of acting thing when I was younger,” Ivelja said.
“For some reason, even in Year 9, Year 10 and Year 11, I chose to do drama at school, and I remember being made fun of for that.
“But since then, I have looked at all these little subtle cues as to why I chose acting. And it's something that's interested me, so I started pursuing that since I was young. It's a very tough cut-throat industry. You never know where your next paycheck is coming from, and it always varies depending on how established you are.”
“It's a fine line between choosing how much you want to cut down and how much you want to pursue, especially with the money involved in your job that you have now. And it's extremely easy, if that makes sense.
“At the start you do a lot of unpaid jobs. As you get better, you do a lot of commercials. So, I just finished a commercial as an extra, but you do extras here and there. And then you just try and get your speaking roles and you use to pick up as well.”
Ivelja played a lot of football and cricket in childhood and pays credit to his mother for giving him those opportunities.
He says she wanted him to simply be active and playing sport as a child. Ivelja has always been a part of Football Canterbury for his entire life playing football.
Now at 26, believes he was always good with his hands, hence why he is in goals, however he enjoyed a nice collector’s item from the penalty spot this season against LFC Sports.
“Ever since I was 10 years old actually started really getting in to soccer and I’m a massive Liverpool fan,” he added.
“I took a free kick in the first trial game of the season and I hit it pretty well too. So, we had an 11-0 win against LFC Sport, we won a penalty, and the boys wanted me to take it so I did.
Ivelja jokingly added he wanted to convert a free kick this season: “I'll get another one this year as well. Don't worry, I'll get a free kick too sometime.”
Hurlstone Park Wanderers currently top the table and Ivelja is hopeful of taking it all this season.
