Tony Vidmar

Antony "Tony" Vidmar (/ˈvɪdmɑːr/ VID-mar; born 4 July 1970 in Adelaide) is an Australian former football (soccer) player and coach, who currently serves as an assistant coach with the Australia national association football team.[1] He was a member of the Australian 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 was also an Australian football player.

Tony Vidmar
Personal information
Full name Antony Vidmar
Date of birth (1970-07-04) 4 July 1970
Place of birth Adelaide, Australia
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing 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)
National team
1990–1992 Australia U23 18 (7)
1991–2006 Australia 76 (3)
Teams managed
2009–2010 Adelaide United Youth (assistant)
2009–2012 SASI
2012–2013 Australia U-17 (assistant)
2013–2017 Australia U-17
2017–2019 Melbourne City (assistant)
2019– Australia (assistant)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

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 3 times. His goal against Italian side Parma in a UEFA Champions League qualifying round tie in 1999 cemented him a place in Rangers folklore.[2] He left the club in 2002 and joined Middlesbrough on a free transfer.[3]

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.[4] 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.[5]

International career

Highly criticised as one of the main weak points in the Australian defence under Frank Farina's tenure, 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.[6] 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.[7] Vidmar announced his international retirement after the friendly fixture against Paraguay on 7 October 2006, in which Australia drew 1–1.

Retirement

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.[8]

"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.

Career statistics

Club
Club Season National Soccer League Finals Oceania Other1 Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Adelaide City 1989 101101
1989–90 264264
1990–91 23330263
1991–92 20140241
1992–93 4141
Club subtotal 83107000009010
Club Season Belgian Pro League Belgian Cup Europe Other Total
Germinal Beerschot 1992–93 9191
Club Season National Soccer League Finals Oceania Other Total
Adelaide City 1993–94 22341264
1994–95 22120241
Club subtotal 12714131000014015
Club Season Eredivisie Dutch Cup Europe Other Total
NAC Breda 1995–96 302302
1996–97 312311
Club subtotal 614000000614
Club Season Scottish Premier League Scottish Cup Europe Other Total
Rangers 1997–98 12020140
1998–99 2811140332
1999–2000 2761150337
2000–01 1511030191
2001–02 221405030341
Club subtotal 1049721903013311
Club Season FA Premier League FA Cup Europe Other Total
Middlesbrough 2002–03 1201020150
Club Season Football League First Division FA Cup Europe Other Total
Cardiff City 2003–04 4511020481
2004–05 2811040331
Club subtotal 732200060812
Club Season Eredivisie Dutch Cup Europe Other Total
NAC Breda 2005–06 210210
Club subtotal 824000000824
Club Season A-League Finals Asia Other Total
Central Coast Mariners 2006–07 15020170
2007–08 1503030210
Club subtotal 300300050480
Total 4373426319016049839

1 Includes English League Cup, Scottish League Cup, A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup

International

[9]

Australia national team
YearAppsGoals
199120
199250
199360
199460
199541
199610
1997130
199800
199900
200030
2001131
200200
200330
2004101
200590
200610
Total763

International goals

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
118 June 1995Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia Ghana1–02–1Friendly
29 April 2001BCU International Stadium, Coffs Harbour, Australia Tonga16–022–02002 FIFA World Cup qualifying
312 October 2004Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia Solomon Islands3–06–02004 OFC Nations Cup
Correct as of 13 January 2017[10]

Honours

With Australia:

With Central Coast Mariners:

  • A-League Premiership: 2007–08

With Rangers:

With Adelaide City:

gollark: I have some unconverted legacy files.
gollark: I prefer wireless soldering irons.
gollark: ··· do you not understand that *maybe* people have different opinions on things to you?
gollark: Or just to keep moderately private stuff reasonably well-isolated from untrustworthy stuff and manage it with trustworthy software stacks.
gollark: Also proprietary GPU firmware and stuff, but that's unavoidable.

References
  1. "Tony Vidmar and Gary van Egmond announced as Socceroos assistant and Young Socceroos boss". Fox Sports Australia. News Corp. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  2. "Rangers put Parma in the shade" BBC Sport Retrieved on 23 October 2018
  3. "Boro sign Vidmar" BBC Sport Retrieved on 10 October 2007
  4. "Vidmar joins Cardiff". BBC Sport. 16 July 2003. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
  5. "Croft shown exit door by Cardiff" BBC Sport Retrieved on 10 October 2007
  6. "Vidmar out of World Cup" Archived 12 September 2012 at Archive.today The World Game 9 May 2006
  7. "Doctors give Vidmar all clear" SMH 6 July 2006
  8. "Vidmar calls it a day"
  9. Tony Vidmar at National-Football-Teams.com
  10. Antony "Tony" Vidmar – International Appearances
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