Theo Markelis gets his shot at redemption

For Theo Markelis footballing redemption could be just a few sweet strikes away.

The Hume City forward faces his former club Melbourne Victory in an FFA Cup semi-final on Wednesday night.

On paper it's a mismatch that pits a Victorian Premier League side against the might of the A-League premiers at AAMI Park.

But Markelis, 23, has already stood alongside far more rarefied company than this.

Pegged as a future star, he packed his bags as a 15 year-old and headed to Spain to fine tune his game with Valencia's academy.

There he'd play alongside future Real Madrid star Isco and receive personal training from then Valencia great David Villa.

Markelis averaged 15 goals across three productive seasons with the Spanish giants and looked to be positioning himself for first team football in Europe.

But just as Isco earned a senior start at Valencia, Markelis found himself loaned out to Vicenze in Italy's Serie B.

Not long after Ange Postecoglou came calling and a 20-year-old Markelis agreed to link up with his hometown team, Victory, in what was supposed to be an exciting move for player and club at the start of the 2012-13 season.

Yet things quickly unravelled further.

The Victory endured a poor start in which Markelis played just five matches as a substitute before picking up a knee injury.

Adding to the difficulty of getting back into the team was the red-hot form of attacking duo Marco Rojas - who went on to win the Johnny Warren Medal - and Archie Thompson.

Markelis suddenly found himself on the outer with Postecoglou, who made him go through the indignity of training sessions by himself before eventually giving him a release.

"It's not a nice thing to be treated that way, for myself or anyone else it has happened to," Markelis said.

"Things didn't go how I wanted them to (at Victory), but that's part of football and it wasn't just me (training alone). A couple of the older boys, Marcos Flores and Jonathan Bru, they're big players, which goes to show no matter who you are it can happen to you.

"I had a few injuries as well ... coaches it's their team, they are the boss, so they do whatever they please.

"With Ange I have nothing bad to say about him. I learnt a lot from him and he's a great coach. It was just bad timing, the way things were going and a bit of bad luck."

Things failed to improve after another stint in Spain and some time in Greece.

"When I left Victory I was still carrying an injury and things went further downhill for me but you learn from everything," Markelis said.

Those heady days at the Valencia academy seem a lifetime away, but all Markelis really wants now is a chance to showcase his talents - at any level.

"It (the last few years) has been tough for me and coming to Hume, even though it's a level down from where I want to be, sometimes you have to do that to get back to where you want to be, and that's playing professionally, in the A-League," he said.

In the FFA Cup Markelis has impressed.

He's scored three goals in the final stages, including a quality quarter-final brace against Oakleigh Cannons and the round of 16 clincher against Sydney Olympic.

To score against his former club and show he has what it takes against the A-League champions would be the sweetest redemption - not to mention the perfect shop window for potential suitors.

Wednesday night will give Markelis that chance as Hume seek some Cup magic, his team drawing confidence from the fact they did recently stretch Victory in a pre-season friendly before going down 4-3.

Against the Victory Markelis says his team will go for broke - and you'd expect him to as well.

"We want to give it a crack and that's what we have been working on in the last month," he said.

"We are going to play attacking football because that's the strongest part of our game. We can pull an upset."