Aurelio Vidmar
Encyclopedia
Aurelio Vidmar is an Australian football (soccer)
player and former captain of the Australian national team
. He is currently not tied to any A-league
club. He is the older brother of Tony Vidmar
, also an Adelaide coach.
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
, 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.
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. Aurelio sometimes captained the national team between 1995 and 2001 when he retired for international competition accumulating 44 caps
and scoring 17 goals.
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 Asian Champions League
final, becoming the first Australia
n team to achieve such a feat. This led Adelaide United CEO Sam Ciccarello to re-sign Vidmar and his assistant Phil Stubbins for another 3 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 5 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.
|1985||rowspan="7"|Adelaide City
||rowspan="7"|National Soccer League
||10||2||||||||||10||2
|-
|1986||26||2||||||||||26||2
|-
|1987||23||2||||||||||23||2
|-
|1988||22||5||||||||||22||5
|-
|1989||25||5||||||||||25||5
|-
|1989/90||23||9||||||||||23||9
|-
|1990/91||28||4||||||||||28||4
|-
|1991/92||Kortrijk||First Division||30||10||||||||||30||10
|-
|1992/93||rowspan="2"|Waregem||rowspan="2"|First Division||32||18||||||||||32||18
|-
|1993/94||25||7||||||||||25||7
|-
|1994/95||Standard Liège
||First Division||32||22||||||||||32||22
|-
|1995/96||Feyenoord Rotterdam
||Eredivisie
||15||2||||||||||15||2
|-
|1995/96||Sion
||Nationalliga A
||14||7||||||||||14||7
|-
|1996/97||rowspan="2"|Tenerife
||rowspan="2"|La Liga
||25||1||||||||||25||1
|-
|1997/98||0||0||||||||||0||0
|-
|1998||rowspan="2"|Sanfrecce Hiroshima
||rowspan="2"|J. League 1||15||4||3||1||0||0||18||5
|-
|1999||9||2||0||0||2||1||11||3
|-
|1999/00||rowspan="4"|Adelaide City
||rowspan="4"|National Soccer League
||34||8||||||||||34||8
|-
|2000/01||21||4||||||||||21||4
|-
|2001/02||23||3||||||||||23||3
|-
|2002/03||32||6||||||||||32||6
|-
|2003/04||Adelaide United
||National Soccer League
||27||2||||||||||27||2
294||52||||||||||294||52
119||57||||||||||119||57
15||2||||||||||15||2
14||7||||||||||14||7
25||1||||||||||25||1
24||6||3||1||2||1||29||8
491||125||3||1||2||1||496||127
|}
|1991||6||1
|-
|1992||2||0
|-
|1993||5||2
|-
|1994||4||2
|-
|1995||1||0
|-
|1996||1||0
|-
|1997||16||8
|-
|1998||0||0
|-
|1999||0||0
|-
|2000||5||0
|-
|2001||4||4
|-
!Total||44||17
|}
:
With Adelaide City
: NSL Championship: 1986
Personal Honours:
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
player and former captain of the Australian national team
Australia national football (soccer) team
The Australia national association football team represents Australia in international association football competitions. Its official nickname is the "Socceroos"...
. He is currently not tied to any A-league
A-League
The A-League is the top Australasian professional football league. Run by Australian governing body Football Federation Australia , it was founded in 2004 following the folding of the National Soccer League and staged its inaugural season in 2005–06. It is sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company...
club. He is the older brother of Tony Vidmar
Tony Vidmar
Anthony "Tony" Vidmar is an Australian former professional football player of Slovenian origin. He was a member of the Australian national team, competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for his native country, and is currently Australia's third highest capped player...
, also an Adelaide coach.
Club career
Aurelio started his professional career with local AdelaideAdelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
team Adelaide City
Adelaide City
Adelaide City is a football club in Adelaide, South Australia. They are also known as The Zebras. They played in the National Soccer League for 27 Seasons but withdrew just prior to the 2003/2004 season. They now play in the South Australian Super League. City won the inaugural Super League...
before moving to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in the mid-1990s to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, where he was the league's top scorer in the 1994-95 season. He also played in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
before returning to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1999 to rejoin City. Vidmar signed with Adelaide United when they took Adelaide City's spot in the National Soccer League
National Soccer League
The National Soccer League is the former national association football competition in Australasia, overseen by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977, until its demise in 2004...
and was awarded the captaincy by then coach John Kosmina
John Kosmina
Alexander John Kosmina , known as John Kosmina, is a former Australian football player and manager of Polish Australian ethnicity. He was most recently the manager of Sydney FC...
. Despite plans to play in the inaugural A-League
A-League
The A-League is the top Australasian professional football league. Run by Australian governing body Football Federation Australia , it was founded in 2004 following the folding of the National Soccer League and staged its inaugural season in 2005–06. It is sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company...
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 SocceroosAustralia national football (soccer) team
The Australia national association football team represents Australia in international association football competitions. Its official nickname is the "Socceroos"...
team for 12 years and was a member of three unsuccessful FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
qualification campaigns. He played and scored against Diego Maradona
Diego Maradona
Diego Armando Maradona is a retired Argentine football player and widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time. Over the course of his professional club career Maradona played for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla and Newell's Old Boys, setting...
's Argentina
Argentina national football team
The Argentina national football team represents Argentina in association football and is controlled by the Argentine Football Association , the governing body for football in Argentina. Argentina's home stadium is Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti and their head coach is Alejandro...
in Australia's final qualifying ties in 1993, he played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
against Iran
Iran national football team
The national football team of Iran represents Iran in international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran...
in 1997 when a 2-0 lead slipped from Australia's grasp. Aurelio sometimes captained the national team between 1995 and 2001 when he retired for international competition accumulating 44 caps
Cap (sport)
In sports, a cap is a metaphorical term for a player's appearance on a select team, such as a national team. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of association football...
and scoring 17 goals.
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 2007-2008A-League 2007-08
The A-League 2007-08 season was the third season of the Australian A-League football competition, won by the Newcastle Jets. Football Federation Australia hoped to build on the success of the previous two seasons and on the interest generated by and playing in the 2007 AFC Champions League, and...
A-League
A-League
The A-League is the top Australasian professional football league. Run by Australian governing body Football Federation Australia , it was founded in 2004 following the folding of the National Soccer League and staged its inaugural season in 2005–06. It is sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company...
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
Sasa Ognenovski
Saša Ognenovski is an Australian football player who currently plays as a central defender for Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma and the Australia national team. Since moving to South Korea, Ognenovski's success has rapidly risen. In 2010, he was named Asian Footballer of the Year, won a position in the...
and built up Adelaide's defence and improved their attacking options. He created history by leading Adelaide to the 2008 Asian Champions League
AFC Champions League 2008
The 2008 AFC Champions League was the 27th AFC Champions League, the top-level Asian club football tournament, and the 6th under the current AFC Champions League title...
final, becoming the first Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n team to achieve such a feat. This led Adelaide United CEO Sam Ciccarello to re-sign Vidmar and his assistant Phil Stubbins for another 3 years in November 2008.
Vidmar was inducted into the Football Federation Australia
Football Federation Australia
Football Federation Australia is the governing body for the sport of football in Australia. Before 1 January 2005, it was known as the Australian Soccer Association , which succeeded Soccer Australia in this role in 2003...
Football Hall of Fame in the same month. He is also in the Football Federation of South Australia
Football Federation of South Australia
The Football Federation of South Australia is the governing body of association football in South Australia. The FFSA are affiliated to the Football Federation 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 5 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
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
" if they did not perform well, Adelaide United handed Vidmar a two-match touchline ban. The club also issued Vidmar a $10,000 fine.
Club career statistics
|-|1985||rowspan="7"|Adelaide City
Adelaide City
Adelaide City is a football club in Adelaide, South Australia. They are also known as The Zebras. They played in the National Soccer League for 27 Seasons but withdrew just prior to the 2003/2004 season. They now play in the South Australian Super League. City won the inaugural Super League...
||rowspan="7"|National Soccer League
National Soccer League
The National Soccer League is the former national association football competition in Australasia, overseen by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977, until its demise in 2004...
||10||2||||||||||10||2
|-
|1986||26||2||||||||||26||2
|-
|1987||23||2||||||||||23||2
|-
|1988||22||5||||||||||22||5
|-
|1989||25||5||||||||||25||5
|-
|1989/90||23||9||||||||||23||9
|-
|1990/91||28||4||||||||||28||4
|-
|1991/92||Kortrijk||First Division||30||10||||||||||30||10
|-
|1992/93||rowspan="2"|Waregem||rowspan="2"|First Division||32||18||||||||||32||18
|-
|1993/94||25||7||||||||||25||7
|-
|1994/95||Standard Liège
Standard Liège
Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (Dutch: Standard Luik [], German: Standard Lüttich , is a Belgian football club from the city of Liège....
||First Division||32||22||||||||||32||22
|-
|1995/96||Feyenoord Rotterdam
Feyenoord Rotterdam
Feyenoord is a Dutch professional football club located in Rotterdam. Along with Ajax and PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord is one of the "big three" clubs in the Netherlands. These three clubs and Utrecht and Roda JC are the only clubs never to have been relegated from the Dutch first division...
||Eredivisie
Eredivisie
The Eredivisie is the highest football league in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956 two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is currently ranked the ninth best league in Europe by UEFA....
||15||2||||||||||15||2
|-
|1995/96||Sion
FC Sion
FC Sion is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home games at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and the Swiss Cup in each of their twelve appearances in the final, the most recent being in 2011.The first team also...
||Nationalliga A
Swiss Super League
The Swiss Super League or Axpo Super League is the top tier of the Swiss Football League. The Swiss Super League is currently ranked 16th according to UEFA's ranking of league coefficients, which is based upon Swiss team performances in European competitions.-Names:-Participating clubs:The teams...
||14||7||||||||||14||7
|-
|1996/97||rowspan="2"|Tenerife
CD Tenerife
Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in Tenerife . Founded in 1922, it currently plays in Segunda División B, holding home matches at Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López, with a 24,000-seat capacity.-History:Club Deportivo Tenerife was founded in...
||rowspan="2"|La Liga
La Liga
The Primera División of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional , commonly known as La Liga or, for sponsorship reasons, Liga BBVA since 2008, is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system...
||25||1||||||||||25||1
|-
|1997/98||0||0||||||||||0||0
|-
|1998||rowspan="2"|Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Sanfrecce Hiroshima
is a Japanese association football club in the J. League Division 1.-Club name:The club name is a portmanteau of the Japanese numeral for three, San and an Italian word frecce or 'arrows'...
||rowspan="2"|J. League 1||15||4||3||1||0||0||18||5
|-
|1999||9||2||0||0||2||1||11||3
|-
|1999/00||rowspan="4"|Adelaide City
Adelaide City
Adelaide City is a football club in Adelaide, South Australia. They are also known as The Zebras. They played in the National Soccer League for 27 Seasons but withdrew just prior to the 2003/2004 season. They now play in the South Australian Super League. City won the inaugural Super League...
||rowspan="4"|National Soccer League
National Soccer League
The National Soccer League is the former national association football competition in Australasia, overseen by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977, until its demise in 2004...
||34||8||||||||||34||8
|-
|2000/01||21||4||||||||||21||4
|-
|2001/02||23||3||||||||||23||3
|-
|2002/03||32||6||||||||||32||6
|-
|2003/04||Adelaide United
Adelaide United FC
Adelaide United Football Club is a professional football club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. It currently participates in the A-League as the sole team from the state of South Australia. Adelaide is one of the most successful clubs in the A-League. The club's home ground is...
||National Soccer League
National Soccer League
The National Soccer League is the former national association football competition in Australasia, overseen by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977, until its demise in 2004...
||27||2||||||||||27||2
294||52||||||||||294||52
119||57||||||||||119||57
15||2||||||||||15||2
14||7||||||||||14||7
25||1||||||||||25||1
24||6||3||1||2||1||29||8
491||125||3||1||2||1||496||127
|}
International career statistics
|-|1991||6||1
|-
|1992||2||0
|-
|1993||5||2
|-
|1994||4||2
|-
|1995||1||0
|-
|1996||1||0
|-
|1997||16||8
|-
|1998||0||0
|-
|1999||0||0
|-
|2000||5||0
|-
|2001||4||4
|-
!Total||44||17
|}
Honours
With AustraliaAustralia national football (soccer) team
The Australia national association football team represents Australia in international association football competitions. Its official nickname is the "Socceroos"...
:
- FIFA Confederations CupFIFA Confederations CupThe FIFA Confederations Cup is an association football tournament for national teams, currently held every four years by FIFA. It is contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships , along with the FIFA World Cup winner and the host nation, to bring the number of teams...
: 19971997 FIFA Confederations Cup-Group B:---------------------Knockout stage:-Semi-finals:-----Third place play-off:-Final:-Awards:-Top scorers:7 goals Romário5 goals Vladimír Šmicer4 goals Ronaldo-References:...
(Runners-Up) - OFC Nations CupOFC Nations CupThe OFC Nations Cup is an international association football tournament held among the Oceania Football Confederation member nations. It was held every two years from 1996 to 2004; before 1996 there were two other tournaments held at irregular intervals, under the name Oceania Nations Cup...
: 20002000 OFC Nations CupSolomon Islands and Vanuatu* qualified for Oceania Nations Cup 2000* Fiji were replaced by Vanuatu .-Polynesia Cup 2000:--------------------------------------------...
With Adelaide City
Adelaide City
Adelaide City is a football club in Adelaide, South Australia. They are also known as The Zebras. They played in the National Soccer League for 27 Seasons but withdrew just prior to the 2003/2004 season. They now play in the South Australian Super League. City won the inaugural Super League...
: NSL Championship: 1986
Personal Honours:
- Belgian League Top Scorer: 1994-1995 with Standard LiègeStandard LiègeRoyal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (Dutch: Standard Luik [], German: Standard Lüttich , is a Belgian football club from the city of Liège....
- 22 goals - Oceania Footballer of the YearOceania Footballer of the YearThe Oceania Footballer of the Year award is presented to the best football player from the Oceania region. The winner is chosen by a forum of journalists. The award is dominated by Australian players, though New Zealand's Wynton Rufer is tied with Harry Kewell for the most titles with 3...
: 1994 - Football Federation of South AustraliaFootball Federation of South AustraliaThe Football Federation of South Australia is the governing body of association football in South Australia. The FFSA are affiliated to the Football Federation Australia...
Hall of Champions: 2008 - Football Federation AustraliaFootball Federation AustraliaFootball Federation Australia is the governing body for the sport of football in Australia. Before 1 January 2005, it was known as the Australian Soccer Association , which succeeded Soccer Australia in this role in 2003...
Hall of Fame: 2008 - A-LeagueA-LeagueThe A-League is the top Australasian professional football league. Run by Australian governing body Football Federation Australia , it was founded in 2004 following the folding of the National Soccer League and staged its inaugural season in 2005–06. It is sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company...
Coach of the Year: 2008-2009A-League 2008-09The 2008–09 A-League season was the fourth season of the Australasian A-League association football competition. Two new clubs, North Queensland Thunder and Gold Coast Galaxy had received tentative licences from the FFA but these were revoked for the 2008–09 season on 12 March 2008. Expansion...