Tony Popovic

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Tony Popovic
Tony Popovic Managing Western Sydney Wanderers Training.png
Personal information
Full name Tony Popovic
Date of birth (1973-07-04) 4 July 1973 (age 51)
Place of birth Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Height Script error: No such module "person height".
Position(s) Centre Back
Team information
Current team
 Western Sydney Wanderers (manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1989–1997 Sydney United 162 (14)
1994 → Canberra FC (loan) 5 (1)
1997–2001 Sanfrecce Hiroshima 87 (13)
2001–2006 Crystal Palace 123 (6)
2006–2007 Al-Arabi 17 (2)
2007–2008 Sydney FC 27 (1)
Total 421 (37)
International career
1988–1989 Australia U-17 7 (2)
1990–1991 Australia U-20 9 (1)
1992 Australia U-23 4 (0)
1995–2006 Australia 58 (8)
Managerial career
2008–2011 Sydney FC (assistant)
2009 Sydney FC (caretaker)
2011–2012 Crystal Palace (assistant)
2012– Western Sydney Wanderers
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Tony Popovic (Croatian: Tony Popović, pronounced [pǒpoʋit͡ɕ]; born 4 July 1973) is an Australian former football player who is the current head coach of A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers.

As a player Popovic's usual position was centre-back. Starting in 1989 at Sydney United he went on to play for Sanfrecce Hiroshima of Japan and Premier League side Crystal Palace, among other clubs. He appeared with the Australian national team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, where he played against reigning World Champions Brazil.

Popovic started his managing career in 2008 with Sydney FC. After a brief stint as assistant at Crystal Palace he was chosen as the inaugural manager of Western Sydney Wanderers at the start of the 2012–13 season.

Club career

Popovic playing for Sydney FC in 2008
Popovic playing for Sydney FC in 2008

Early career

Popovic was born in Sydney, New South Wales to a Croatian family.[1] Popovic grew up in Fairfield, New South Wales.[2] Popovic began his career with Sydney United. He rose through the youth ranks, making 162 appearances in seven years for the first team, before moving to play in the J-League. Popovic signed with Sanfrecce Hiroshima where he stayed for five years scoring 13 goals in 94 appearances.

Crystal Palace FC

Tony Popovic signed for Crystal Palace on a free transfer in August 2001 from Sanfrecce Hiroshima. He became an integral part of the Palace defence, eventually becoming club captain. He played more than 120 matches for Crystal Palace. In his last season he played for Crystal Palace in 21 Premier League matches. In total he made more than 120 appearances for the club.[3]

Popovic's contract with Palace expired at the end of June 2006, and he decided against accepting the club's offer of a new contract. He instead moved to Qatar club, Al-Arabi.

Sydney FC

In 2007, with the growth of the A-League and slight homesickness, Popovic moved to Sydney FC, signing a two-year deal, with coach Branko Čulina also announcing him the club's captain.[4] Popovic scored his first goal on 28 October 2007 from a corner to beat the Mariners 3–2 in front of his home crowd of 17,850.

Popovic announced his retirement on 11 November 2008 after nearly 20 years as a professional footballer.[5]

International career

Popovic competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for the Australian U-23 team. He began his full international career in 1995 with the Australian national team. Over the next eleven years Popovic made 58 appearances for the Socceroos, scoring 8 goals.

The highlight of Popovic's career came in 2006 when the Australian national team qualified for the FIFA World Cup under the management of Guus Hiddink. He took part in both legs in the qualifying match against Uruguay. Being replaced in the first half of the second leg due to injury by Harry Kewell. The tall defender was named in the competing squad and made his World Cup debut against Brazil on 18 June. He suffered a calf injury 40 minutes into the game and was replaced by Marco Bresciano for the second half.[5] His injury ruled him out of Australia's last match in the group stage, against Croatia, and their second round loss against eventual winners, Italy.

On 4 October 2006 Tony Popovic announced his retirement from the Socceroos.[6]

His final game was a friendly against Paraguay that month. He scored his eighth international goal, from a Mark Bresciano free kick, in his final minute on field to put Australia ahead, 1–0 in a game that finished 1–1.[5]

Coaching career

Popovic in 2010.

After retiring, Popovic moved into an assistant coach's role with Sydney FC,[7] where he remained until February 2011, when he returned to England and to Crystal Palace as first team coach,[8] after former team-mate Dougie Freedman was appointed manager.[9]

Western Sydney Wanderers

On 17 May 2012, Popovic was announced as inaugural manager of A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers.[10] He joined the club on a four seasons deal after requesting to be released from the final year of his contracted role as assistant manager of Crystal Palace.[10] In Wanderers' first season, Popovic was named A-League Coach of the Year after finishing first in the league.[11] In the 2013/14 season Popovic led Wanderers to the 2014 AFC Champions League Final in the clubs first attempt in the competition. They defeated Al-Hilal in the final, becoming the first Australian team to win the tournament. As a result of this achievement, Popovic was named as the 2014 AFC Coach of the Year.[12] With poor recruiting, the loss of assistant coach Ante Milicic, and a grueling schedule of matches, the 2014/15 season saw Popovic's team finish ninth in the league and eliminated from the group stage of the 2015 AFC Champions League. Despite an unfavorable season Popovic signed new three-season deal with Western Sydney Wanderers, which would keep him at the club helm until 2018.[13]

Statistics

[14]

Club performance League Cup League Cup Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Australia League Cup League Cup Total
1989/90 Sydney Croatia National Soccer League 13 0 13 0
1990/91 17 1 17 1
1991/92 20 1 20 1
1992/93 24 2 24 2
1993/94 Sydney United National Soccer League 27 2 27 2
1994/95 25 3 25 3
1995/96 29 4 29 4
1996/97 7 2 7 2
Japan League Emperor's Cup J. League Cup Total
1997 Sanfrecce Hiroshima J. League 1 11 0 0 0 6 0 17 0
1998 25 4 3 1 2 1 30 6
1999 23 6 5 0 1 0 29 6
2000 21 3 2 0 3 2 26 5
2001 7 0 0 0 0 0 7 0
England League FA Cup League Cup Total
2001/02 Crystal Palace First Division 20 2 1 0 21 2
2002/03 36 4 3 0 40 4
2003/04 30 1 1 0 31 1
2004/05 Premier League 23 0 23 0
2005/06 League Championship 10 0 10 0
Qatar League Emir Cup Sheikh Jassem Cup Total
2006/07 Al-Arabi Stars League 17 2 17 2
Australia League Cup League Cup Total
2007/08 Sydney FC A-League 20 1 20 1
2008/09 7 0 7 0
Country Australia 189 16 189 16
Japan 87 13 10 1 12 3 109 17
England 119 7 5 0 119 7
Qatar 17 2 17 2
Total 412 38 15 1 12 3 439 42
Australia national team
Year Apps Goals
1995 8 0
1996 10 0
1997 2 0
1998 2 0
1999 0 0
2000 7 1
2001 10 5
2002 0 0
2003 2 1
2004 5 0
2005 8 0
2006 4 1
Total 58 8

International goals

Date Venue Opponent Result Result Competition Scored
19 June 2000 Papeete, Tahiti  Cook Islands 17–0 Won Oceania Nations Cup 1 (1)
9 April 2001 BCU International Stadium  Tonga 22–0 Won 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC) 1 (2)
11 April 2001 BCU International Stadium  American Samoa 31–0 Won 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC) 2 (4)
16 April 2001 BCU International Stadium  Samoa 11–0 Won 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC) 2 (6)
12 February 2003 Boleyn Ground, London  England 3–1 Won Friendly 1 (7)
7 September 2006 Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane  Paraguay 1–1 Draw Friendly 1 (8)

Managerial statistics

As of 5 December 2015
Team From To Record
G W D L Win %
Western Sydney Wanderers 17 May 2012 Present 1,000,396 47 25 1,000,324 00.00
Total 1,000,396 47 25 1,000,324 00.00

Honours

As a player

Australia

As a manager

Western Sydney Wanderers

Individual

References

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  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "ffa-headcoach" defined multiple times with different content
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/tony-popovic-nominated-for-2014-afc-coach-of-the-year-award-after-leading-wanderers-to-acl-glory/story-e6frf423-1227126036473
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Tony Popovic at National-Football-Teams.comLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).

External links

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