Australian soccer player and coach

Aurelio Vidmar (/ɔːˈriːlioʊ ˈvɪdmɑːr/ aw-REEL-ee-oh VID-mar; born 3 February 1967) is a football coach and former player. He is a former captain of the Australia national team and former coach of the Australia U23 national team. He is currently the manager of Thai League 1 club Bangkok United.

In recognition of decorated national team career, and his service to Adelaide United, the southern end of Hindmarsh Stadium is named the Vidmar End.

His brother Tony Vidmar is also a former footballer.

Contents

• 1 Club career
• 2 International career
• 3 Managerial career
• 4 Personal life
• 5 Career statistics
  • 5.1 Club
  • 5.2 Internnational
• 6 Managerial statistics
• 7 Honours
  • 7.1 Player
  • 7.2 Manager
  • 7.3 Individual
• 8 References
• 9 External links

Club career

Vidmar started his professional career with local Adelaide team Adelaide City before moving to Europe in the mid-1990s to Belgium, where he was the league's top scorer in the 1994–95 season. He also played in Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and in *an before returning to Australia in 1999 to rejoin City. Vidmar signed with Adelaide United when they took Adelaide City's spot in the National Soccer League and was awarded the captaincy by then coach John Kosmina. Despite plans to play in the inaugural A-League season he retired in 2005 bringing an end to a 20-year playing career in which time he played 517 games scoring 127 goals.

International career

Vidmar was a member of the Australia national team for 12 years and was a member of three unsuccessful FIFA World Cup qualification campaigns. He played and scored against Diego Maradona's Argentina in Australia's final qualifying ties in 1993, he played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against Iran in 1997 when a 2–0 lead slipped from Australia's grasp. He also played in the match between Australia and American Samoa in 2001 and scored twice. Vidmar sometimes captained the Socceroos between 1995 and 2001 when he retired for international compe*ion ac*ulating 44 caps and scoring 17 goals.

Managerial career

After his retirement in 2005 he took up a role of *istant coach working under Kosmina, he was appointed as head coach on 2 May 2007. The 2007–08 A-League season was not very successful for Aurelio Vidmar, his side finishing 6th out of 8 teams on the ladder the first time Adelaide failed to make the finals. Calls for his resignation were being made and his unsuccessful Asian Champions League campaign, albeit against talented opposition, only fuelled these accusations, coming 3rd in his group with only the winner progressing to the quarter finals.

Vidmar began to regain the support of the United supporters by securing valuable acquisitions such as Cristiano and Sasa Ognenovski and built up Adelaide's defence and improved their attacking options. He created history by leading Adelaide to the 2008 AFC Champions League Final, becoming the first Australian team to achieve such a feat. This led Adelaide United CEO Sam Ciccarello to re-sign Vidmar and his *istant Phil Stubbins for another three years in November 2008.

Vidmar was inducted into the Football Federation Australia Football Hall of Fame in the same month. He is also in the Football Federation of South Australia Hall of Champions. He made a controversial diatribe after the semi-final against Melbourne Victory, in which Adelaide lost 4–0, and 6–0 on aggregate. Post-match, he claimed that Adelaide was a "piss-ant town", and that politics within the club was to blame for the loss. He later apologised for his remarks.

However, with the start of the new season, Vidmar was unable to retain the form from the previous season with a slow start by taking only five of the 15 available points. He has been criticised for his use of playing a lone striker. Adelaide finished last in the 2009–10 season. As a result of comments he made at a media conference in November 2009 about "beheading his players like they would do in Saudi Arabia" if they did not perform well, Adelaide United handed Vidmar a two-match touchline ban. The club also issued Vidmar a $10,000 fine. After leaving Adelaide United, Vidmar became the coach of the Young Socceroos. Vidmar was the caretaker coach of the Socceroos team for one match in 2013, after Holger Osieck's contract was terminated.

He was appointed in 2018 as Director of Football for Adelaide United FC. After five months, the club announced on 6 February 2019, that Vidmar had resigned from his role.

In 2022, Vidmar has been named as coach of Bangkok United, the struggling Thai League 1 side. The Australian replaces Totchtawan Sripan, who has been appointed the club's technical director.

Personal life

Vidmar is the brother of Tony Vidmar, who is also a former footballer.

Career statistics

Club

Internnational

Managerial statistics

As of match played 4 May 2022

1 Results from penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws in this table.

Honours

Player

Adelaide City

• NSL Championship: 1986

FC Sion

• Swiss Cup: 1995–96

Australia

• FIFA Confederations Cup: runner-up 1997
• OFC Nations Cup: 2000

Manager

BG Pathum United

• Thailand Champions Cup: 2021

Individual

• Belgian League top scorer: 1994–95 (22 goals)
• Oceania Footballer of the Year: 1994
• Football Federation of South Australia Hall of Champions: 2008
• Football Federation Australia Hall of Fame: 2008
• A-League Coach of the Year: 2008–09
• South Australia Sports Hall of Fame 2019

References

External links

• Aurelio Vidmar on Twitter
• Aurelio Vidmar at National-Football-Teams.com
• Aurelio Vidmar at J.League (in *anese)
• Adelaide United profile

Participants

• Allen
• Arok
• Bainbridge
• Bambridge
• Barclay
• Barlow
• Bayutti
• Blanco
• Boskovic
• Broadbent
• Brusasco
• D. Campbell
• Caruso
• Cilauro
• *erill
• Connell
• Constantine
• Corrigan
• Crisp
• Croft
• Crook
• Culina
• Dalgleish
• De Witt
• Desira
• Dettre
• Dick
• Di Fabrizio
• Dockerty
• Druery
• Dunster
• Economos
• Fletcher
• George
• Gibbs
• Gilbert
• Gilmour
• Grant
• P. Gray
• Grimson
• Harlow
• Heath
• Hetherington
• *
• J. Honeysett
• Hutchinson
• Kamasz
• Kannangara
• Klose
• Kovac
• Krüger
• Lamb
• Lefevre
• Lennie
• Logan
• Lowy
• Maramaris
• Matić
• McDermott
• McIver
• McShane
• Miles
• L. Murray
• P. Murray
• Nikolich
• Oakley
• Ogston
• Papasavas
• Perkins
• Poulakakis
• Rasic
• Re
• Reid
• Rennie
• Roberts
• Robins
• Royal
• Sandell
• Scarsella
• Schwab
• Scheinflug
• Selby
• Sermanni
• Shield
• Simmons
• R. Smith
• Sutherland
• Tagg
• Taylor
• Telfer
• Thomas
• E. Thomson
• J. Thomson
• Thorne
• Turner
• Tuting
• Valentine
• Van Ryn
• Vasilopoulos
• Vella
• Vessey
• Villiers
• Vlasits
• Vrolyks
• Walkley
• Wallace
• E. Watson
• Weinstein
• Wells
• Wilkins
• Woods
• Worthington
• Wright