Aurelio Vidmar

Aurelio Vidmar (, ; ; born 3 February 1967) is an Australian association football manager and former player who is currently the head coach of A-League Men club Melbourne City.

He is a former captain of the Australia national team and former coach of the Australia U23 national team.

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

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 Japan 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 competition accumulating 44 caps and scoring 17 goals.

He was also selected as overage player on the Australia Olympic soccer team at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Managerial career Vidmar pictured with a fan during his time at Melbourne City.

After his retirement in 2005 he took up a role of assistant 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 assistant 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 was named as coach of Bangkok United, the struggling Thai League 1 side. On 28 December 2022, Vidmar resigned his post for personal reasons.

Melbourne City On the 1st of November 2023, Vidmar was announced as the new Melbourne City manager, until the end of the 2023-24 season.

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

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial statistics

Honours Player Adelaide City NSL Championship: 1986

FC Sion Swiss Cup: 1995–96

Australia FIFA Confederations Cup runner-up: 1997; 3rd place, 2001 OFC Nations Cup: 2000

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 South Australia Sports Hall of Fame 2019

Manager

Adelaide United A-League Men Championship Runner-up (1): 2009 A-League Men Premiership Runner-up (1): 2008–09 A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup Winners (1): 2007 AFC Champions League Runner-up (1): 2008

BG Pathum United Thailand Champions Cup: 2021

Melbourne City A-League Men Championship: 2025

Individual A-League Coach of the Year: 2008–09 Thai League 1 Coach of the Month: August 2022