Tony Vidmar

Tony Vidmar
Personal information
Full name Antony Vidmar[1]
Date of birth (1970-07-04) 4 July 1970 (age 54)
Place of birth Adelaide, Australia
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s) Defender
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1989–1995 Adelaide City 134 (15)
1993 → Germinal Ekeren (loan) 9 (1)
1995–1997 NAC Breda 61 (4)
1997–2002 Rangers 104 (9)
2002–2003 Middlesbrough 12 (0)
2003–2005 Cardiff City 73 (2)
2005–2006 NAC Breda 21 (0)
2006–2008 Central Coast Mariners 33 (0)
Total 448 (31)
International career
1990–1992 Australia U23 18 (7)
1991–2006 Australia 76 (3)
Managerial career
2009–2010 Adelaide United Youth (assistant)
2009–2012 FFSA NTC
2012–2017 FFA CoE
2012–2013 Australia U-17 (assistant)
2013–2017 Australia U-17
2017–2019 Melbourne City (assistant)
2019– Australia (assistant)
2019–2022 Australia U23 (assistant)
2022– Australia U23
Medal record
Representing  Australia
Men's Association football
FIFA Confederations Cup
Runner-up 1997 Saudi Arabia
Bronze medal – third place 2001 South Korea-Japan
OFC Nations Cup
Winner 2004 Australia
OFC U-23 Championship
Winner 1991 Oceania
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Antony Vidmar (born 4 July 1970) is an Australian soccer coach and former player, who serves as an assistant coach with the Australia and head coach of Australia.[2] He was a member of the Australia national team, competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for his native country, and with 76 caps, is one of Australia's most capped players. His brother Aurelio Vidmar is also a former footballer.

Club career

[edit]

Vidmar was born in Adelaide to a Slovenian father and Italian mother.[3] His biggest impact in club football came whilst at Scottish side Rangers, for whom he played over 150 games and won the Scottish Premier League twice, the Scottish League Cup twice and the Scottish Cup three times. His goal against Italian side Parma in a UEFA Champions League qualifying round tie in 1999 cemented him a place in Rangers folklore.[4] He left the club in 2002 and joined Middlesbrough on a free transfer.[5]

He then joined Welsh side Cardiff City on a free transfer in 2003, with manager Lennie Lawrence being quick to sign him after missing out the previous year following his release from Rangers.[6] Vidmar quickly became a fans favourite at Cardiff and made 73 appearances for the club before leaving in 2005 to re-sign for Dutch side NAC Breda, the club he had left to join Rangers.[7]

International career

[edit]

Highly criticised as one of the main weak points in the Australia national team's defence under Frank Farina's tenure,[citation needed] Guus Hiddink's appointment sparked a tremendous improvement in his performance, culminating in an impressive performance in the second leg of the World Cup qualifying tie against Uruguay. Vidmar notably volunteered to take his teammate Mark Bresciano's kick in the penalty shootout (after the latter had been substituted through injury). This was successfully converted, giving Australia a 3–1 lead, and they subsequently won 4–2 on penalties.

On 9 May 2006, Vidmar announced he was withdrawing himself from World Cup team selection for medical reasons, specifically an irregular heart rhythm.[8] Doctors discovered this irregularity was due to a blood clot in his left coronary artery. Following an operation in London, Vidmar was given the all-clear to resume his professional football career.[9] Vidmar announced his international retirement after the friendly fixture against Paraguay on 7 October 2006, in which Australia drew 1–1.

Retirement

[edit]

On 14 February 2008, Vidmar announced his retirement and an end to his decorated playing career after the 2008 A-League Grand Final. The former Socceroo defender said he wanted to end speculation about his future and thought the domestic decider was the best way to end his career.[10]

"There has been a lot of speculation on what I was going to do, whether to continue on or to end my career. I made up my mind about three weeks ago and thought that it was probably the right time to finish and that was well before we clinched our Grand Final berth." "My aim at the start of the season was to help qualify the team for the AFC Champions League and to top that now would be very difficult."

Vidmar said there had been many influential players on his career, which began at Adelaide City in 1989:

"There are a lot of people that I'd like to thank – when I first started in the National Soccer League my first coach Zoran Matic was a huge influence for my career and every other coach that I've had since has influenced me in some way." "I'd like to thank everyone at the Mariners – everyone in the office to the coaching staff and my team-mates, after what happened with my medical condition it was a gamble that they took to bring me here and I'd like to thank them for giving me the opportunity to finish my career in Australia, it would definitely be nice to finish it off with a Championship."

The Mariners went on to lose the Grand Final to the Newcastle Jets.

Personal life

[edit]

Vidmar is the brother of Aurelio Vidmar who is also a former footballer.[11] His daughter Mikayla Vidmar who is also a footballer recently played in A-League Women for Canberra United FC.[12]

Career statistics

[edit]

Club

[edit]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup Continental Other[a] Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Adelaide City 1989 National Soccer League 10 1 10 1
1989–90 National Soccer League 26 4 26 4
1990–91 National Soccer League 23 3 3 0 26 3
1991–92 National Soccer League 20 1 4 0 24 1
1992–93 National Soccer League 4 1 4 1
Total 83 10 7 0 0 0 0 0 90 10
Germinal Beerschot 1992–93 Belgian First Division 9 1 9 1
Adelaide City 1993–94 National Soccer League 22 3 4 1 26 4
1994–95 National Soccer League 22 1 2 0 24 1
Total 127 14 13 1 0 0 0 0 140 15
NAC Breda 1995–96 Eredivisie 30 2 30 2
1996–97 Eredivisie 31 2 31 1
Total 61 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 61 4
Rangers 1997–98 Scottish Premier Division 12 0 2 0 14 0
1998–99 Scottish Premier League 28 1 1 1 4 0 33 2
1999–2000 Scottish Premier League 27 6 1 1 5 0 33 7
2000–01 Scottish Premier League 15 1 1 0 3 0 19 1
2001–02 Scottish Premier League 22 1 4 0 5 0 3 0 34 1
Total 104 9 7 2 19 0 3 0 133 11
Middlesbrough 2002–03 Premier League 12 0 1 0 2 0 15 0
Cardiff City 2003–04 First Division 45 1 1 0 2 0 48 1
2004–05 First Division 28 1 1 0 4 0 33 1
Total 73 2 2 0 0 0 6 0 81 2
NAC Breda 2005–06 Eredivisie 21 0 21 0
Central Coast Mariners 2006–07 A-League 15 0 2 0 17 0
2007–08 A-League 15 0 3 0 3 0 21 0
Total 30 0 3 0 0 0 5 0 48 0
Career total 437 34 26 3 19 0 16 0 498 39
  1. ^ Includes Football League Cup, Scottish League Cup, A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup

International

[edit]
Appearances and goals by national team and year[13]
National team Year Apps Goals
Australia 1991 2 0
1992 5 0
1993 6 0
1994 6 0
1995 4 1
1996 1 0
1997 13 0
1998 0 0
1999 0 0
2000 3 0
2001 13 1
2002 0 0
2003 3 0
2004 10 1
2005 9 0
2006 1 0
Total 76 3
Scores and results list Australia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Vidmar goal.
List of international goals scored by Tony Vidmar[14]
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 18 June 1995 Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia  Ghana 1–0 2–1 Friendly
2 9 April 2001 BCU International Stadium, Coffs Harbour, Australia  Tonga 16–0 22–0 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying
3 12 October 2004 Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia  Solomon Islands 3–0 6–0 2004 OFC Nations Cup

Managerial statistics

[edit]
As of match played 21 April 2024
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record
G W D L GF GA GD Win %
Australia U23 11 May 2022 Present 16 7 3 6 33 24 +9 043.75
Total 16 7 3 6 33 24 +9 043.75

Honours

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Player

[edit]

Adelaide City

Rangers

Central Coast Mariners

Australia U23

Australia

Individual

Manager

[edit]

Australia U16

References

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  1. ^ "Squad List: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: Australia (AUS)" (PDF). FIFA. 18 December 2022. p. 2. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
  2. ^ "Tony Vidmar and Gary van Egmond announced as Socceroos assistant and Young Socceroos boss". Fox Sports Australia. News Corp. 27 June 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  3. ^ "100-year Socceroos dream team named". The West Australian. 22 September 2022.
  4. ^ "Rangers put Parma in the shade" BBC Sport Retrieved on 23 October 2018
  5. ^ "Boro sign Vidmar" BBC Sport Retrieved on 10 October 2007
  6. ^ "Vidmar joins Cardiff". BBC Sport. 16 July 2003. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
  7. ^ "Croft shown exit door by Cardiff" BBC Sport Retrieved on 10 October 2007
  8. ^ "Vidmar out of World Cup" Archived 12 September 2012 at archive.today The World Game 9 May 2006
  9. ^ "Doctors give Vidmar all clear" SMH 6 July 2006
  10. ^ ""Vidmar calls it a day"". Archived from the original on 3 June 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2008.
  11. ^ Rosengarten, Jake (5 May 2020). "Catch-Ups: John Aloisi with Tony and Aurelio Vidmar". Optus. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  12. ^ Catalano, Alex (8 October 2021). "Daughter of a legend Mikayla Vidmar joins Canberra United". The Inner Sanctum. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  13. ^ Tony Vidmar at National-Football-Teams.com
  14. ^ "Antony "Tony" Vidmar - International Appearances". www.rsssf.org.
  15. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 June 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 January 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. ^ "Oceania Nations Cup 2004". Retrieved 14 October 2024.
  18. ^ "FFA name Teams of the Decades". My Footb-ALL. 17 December 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
  19. ^ "Subway Socceroos: Team of the Century". Football Federation Australia. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
  20. ^ "Vidmar proud of Joeys' sensational win in AFF final". Football Federation Australia. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
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