27-year-old Australian international winger Nikita Rukavtsya, currently on loan at FC Frankfurt from German side Mainz 05, has joined Maccabi Tel Aviv’s pre-season training camp in Austria.
The six-foot one-inch Rukavytsya was born in the Ukraine before moving with his family to Australia at the age of 14, where he began his senior career with Australian side Perth Glory. Three appearances for the young Australian national team at the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 earned Rukavytsya a transfer in 2009 to Dutch side Twente, where he played for one season before joining German outfit Hertha Berlin and helping them win promotion to the Bundesliga. In the summer of 2012 he joined Mainz 05 and in 2013 was sent out on loan to FSV Frankfurt, where he made twelve appearances and scored two goals.
Rukavytsya has thirteen international appearances for Australia, including two in the 2010 World Cup finals against Germany and Ghana. He scored a goal for the Socceroos in a 2-1 victory over South Korea in 2012 and made his most recent appearance as a substitute in an international friendly against France in Paris in October of last year.
