Women’s Asian Champions League a game-changer for City | USAEMALL.com

Tyla-Jay Vlajnic has made plenty of history with Melbourne City.

But the A-League Women stalwart hopes the club’s new frontier – the inaugural Women’s Asian Champions League – can prove a game-changer for both current and future players.

City will host a historic home quarter-final at AAMI Park against Taiwanese club Taichung Blue Whale on Sunday.

“It’s very exciting. The buzz around here is pretty real,” Vlajnic told AAP.

“I hope that people show up so that we can showcase what Melbourne City are about, help build women’s football in Victoria specifically, but around Australia as well and then build on the success of the Matildas and the success of our 19-game unbeaten streak.”

There is also a big financial stake for City’s players, just three games away from a $1m pay day.

If City win the tournament, each player could pocket as much as $50,000 – a potentially life changing figure given the ALW minimum wage is just over $25,000.

“I was back in the league when there was zero pay,” Vlajnic said.

“That kind of money for women playing football in Australia is huge.

“It’s enough to be able to get yourself a house deposit, hopefully, depending on what city you live in, or set yourself up for the next year or get a new car to get you to training.

“That amount of money, although some people may be like, ‘oh, it’s not that much’, for us females playing football here in Australia, it’s a huge, huge amount of money.

“But I don’t think we’ve really thought about it in terms of the money.

“We’re just like, ‘all right, let’s just win’ because that’s the mentality here at City. It’s win as much as you can, be as successful as you can and hopefully everything else follows the way that it’s supposed to.”

Vlajnic, who these days juggles football – including internationals with Serbia – with shifts as a neonatal nurse, has done the hard yards.

“My first year in the A-League, I was a train-on. I didn’t have a contract, but I showed up five days a week and did everything I had to do,” she said.

“I was working shift work at the time and I was at Jetstar, so I was flying the red-eye flight and then would just rock up straight to training from work.

“Just doing the hard yards and just being like ‘my time will come’ – that’s the way that I’ve always looked at it.”

Inaugural City player Vlajnic, 34, has four championships and two premiers plates to her name – including featuring in two ‘Invincible’ seasons.

Returning to City this season after two years at Western United, she is dreaming of completing a unique treble.

“I’ve said a few times if we win all three, maybe I’ll just hang up the boots and go out on a high.

“But if I know myself, I’ll probably keep going until either my legs drop off or the body doesn’t keep up any more.”