Aurelio Vidmar facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Aurelio Vidmar

Personal information
Date of birth	(1967-02-03) 3 February 1967 (age 57)
Place of birth	Adelaide, Australia
Height	1.80 m
Playing position	Attacking midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1985–1991	Adelaide City	157	(29)
1991–1992	Kortrijk	30	(10)
1992–1994	Waregem	57	(25)
1994–1995	Standard Liège	32	(22)
1995–1996	Feyenoord	15	(2)
1996	Sion	14	(7)
1997–1998	Tenerife	25	(1)
1998–1999	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	24	(6)
1999–2003	Adelaide City	110	(21)
2001	→ Croydon Kings (loan)	3	(0)
2003–2004	Adelaide United	27	(2)
Total		494	(125)
National team
1996	Australia Olympic	4	(3)
1991–2001	Australia	44	(17)
Teams managed
2005–2006	Adelaide United (assistant)
2007–2010	Adelaide United
2010–2016	Australia (assistant)
2010–2016	Australia U-23
2012	Australia U-20
2013	Australia (caretaker)
2016–2017	Bangkok Glass
2019–2021	Lion City Sailors
2021	BG Pathum United
2022	Bangkok United
Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Aurelio Vidmar (/ɔːˈriːlioʊ ˈvɪdmɑːr/ aw-REEL-ee-OH-_-VID-mar; born 3 February 1967) is an Australian association football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Thai League 1 club Bangkok United.

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.

His brother Tony Vidmar is also a former footballer.

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

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.

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. 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. On 28 December 2022, Vidmar resigned his post for personal reasons.

Personal life

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

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial statistics

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
• Thai League 1 Coach of the Month: August 2022

See also

In Spanish: Aurelio Vidmar para niños