Date: December 26th 2009
Author: Lee Gaskin
From: The Canberra Times

AIS striker Eli Babalj has joined the A-League expansion club Melbourne Heart despite the institute failing to notch a win in the National Youth League this season.

Babalj is the competition's top marksman with nine goals but the AIS is still on the bottom of the table with four draws from 14 games. The 17-year-old's efforts in front of goal have seen him put pen to paper for the Heart's inaugural season in 2010-11.

''He's difficult player to mark,'' AIS coach Jan Versleijen said. ''Eli is pretty tall he's about 1.87m but he's also good with his feet.

''He has good awareness in the box and positioning to know where he needs to be.''

Babalj is quickly learning that he must add other strings to his bow if he wants to make the giant leap from Australian under-17 representative to fully-fledged professional.

''I've told Eli that to play at a higher level he needs to do more than score goals,'' Versleijen said.

''He needs to hold up the ball and help out defensively, which he has improved on.''

Babalj will be joined at the Heart by talented winger Kamar Ibrahim.

The AIS's exciting bunch of 16 and 17-year-old's have lacked composure this season, no more evident than in last week's 3-1 loss to Newcastle.

A host of silly errors saw the Jets skip away to a 3-0 advantage, but Versleijen hopes his troops are getting ever closer to that elusive win.

''The main objective of us playing in the National Youth League is to give these kids great experience, but obviously once we get that first win that will give them a lot of confidence,'' he said.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/sport/football-soccer/giant-striker-babalj-has-plenty-of-heart/1713642.aspx