Plenty the A-League learn from Romeo Jozak's checkered career Man in demand: Croatia's technical director Romeo Jozak in Sydney. No sooner had Romeo Jozak taken his seat in the lobby of Sydney's Shangri-la Hotel before he made one thing clear: he's not here to pinch Australia's best young players for Croatia. It's absurd that relations between two football nations have been reduced this, but Jozak, Croatia's national technical director, knows it's a sore point. Don't worry, my job is not to make them choose the 'checkers' [Croatia's coat of arms]. I'm here to help Australian players and to pass on my experiences and insights," he said. Besides, I think I might have some ideas for you. If some have a tactical brain, others an eye for scouting or a knack for youth development, the 41-year-old is blessed with unfair levels of everything. It's why the youth-obsessed Arsenal made him their prime candidate to replace academy boss and Gunners legend Liam Brady, who steps down in May next year. He knocked back the offer. A year before, he knocked back over $500,000 from the Irish FA to be their technical director. "I've got three young kids so I'm settled in Zagreb for the moment and I have an opportunity to help my country," he said. Maybe in the future I'll think about going elsewhere. Maybe even somewhere like Australia. With that festering issue of football diplomacy fixed up, it's time to start plundering Jozak's mercurial brain - one that helped guide Luka Modric, Eduardo Da Silva, Vedran Corluka, Niko Kranjcar and Dejan Lovren to stardom when he was in charge of Dinamo Zagreb's youth academy. So how does Croatia, with a population of just 4.5 million, managed to produce such an embarrassment of world class players? "God might have blessed us with a great ability but the rest we did ourselves," he said. We've developed great coaches and they really know how to coach at every level. They understand the system and they follow it. Jozak speaks about football like a biologist about evolution. There's a certain age for fun, for skills and for tactics ("Even by 14, it's too late to teach a certain player certain skills and motor reflexes"). He is, after all, a PhD holder with a thesis in football and a senior lecturer for UEFA. He is in Australia because Sydney United president Mark Ivancic and the club's technical director, Luka Hrzina, wanted him to map out a plan for the club's future. Soon, A-League clubs caught wind of his visit and he was sought out by Western Sydney Wanderers coach Tony Popovic and Sydney FC's Zeljko Kalac. On Tuesday a Football Federation Australia delegation spearheaded by Alex Tobin and Ian Crook will listen to his presentation. If there's one thing to take away speaking to Jozak it's his ability to myth-bust. Like the one about street football being the missing ingredient in first-world countries. You can develop as many bad habits from street football as you can good habits. Without a coach correcting those bad habits, they can be there for life," he said. I know some people believe it here that playing football will improve more than training. This is definitely not true. I'm not afraid to say this. Education has to be isolated. It's almost easier to have someone who's never played and teach them good habits rather than somebody turning around the bad habits of a street footballer. How about Barcelona being the holy grail of youth development? "They do a pretty good job," he says, unconvinced. But they've got so much money that if they don't produce what they want, it doesn't matter. They'll just go and buy from somewhere else. They spend €22 million on their academy each year. Jozak believes Australian sides should learn from clubs who are also limited by funds but still produce elite quality. Go and check out Athletic Bilbao. They can't buy players [due to a strict Basque-only cantera policy] so they have to make their own. [Bundesliga club] Freiburg are excellent and so is Dinamo. They're so good because they're under huge pressure to produce great players. Jozak said he had a "sleepness" night after seeing Croatia draw Brazil in next year's World Cup but says nobody should count his nation out - and nor should anyone count out Australia, despite being drawn with Chile, the Netherlands and the all-conquering Spain. "There's six or seven months for your coaching staff to prepare, which means their tactics will be crucial," he said. Matches can still be decided by moments. It might be a yellow card, a corner, a free kick. There's opportunities inside each game against any team, even great ones. And a winner? I like what the Germans are doing. I think they can bring something special to Brazil.