Tony Vidmar

Antony "Tony" Vidmar (born 4 July 1970 in Adelaide) is an Australian former football (soccer) player and coach. 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.

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. He left the club in 2002 and joined Middlesbrough on a free transfer.^[1]

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.^[2] 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.^[3]

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 team mate 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.^[4] 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.^[5] Vidmar announced his international retirement after the friendly fixture against Paraguay on 7 October 2006, at 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.^[6]

"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 a lot of 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	10	1							10	1
	1989-90	26	4							26	4
	1990-91	23	3	3	0					26	3
	1991-92	20	1	4	0					24	1
	1992-93	4	1							4	1
	Club subtotal	83	10	7	0	0	0	0	0	90	10
Club	Season	Belgian Pro League		Belgian Cup		Europe		Other		Total
Germinal Beerschot	1992-93	9	1							9	1
Club	Season	National Soccer League		Finals		Oceania		Other		Total
Adelaide City	1993-94	22	3	4	1					26	4
	1994-95	22	1	2	0					24	1
	Club subtotal	127	14	13	1	0	0	0	0	140	15
Club	Season	Eredivisie		Dutch Cup		Europe		Other		Total
NAC Breda	1995-96	30	2							30	2
	1996-97	31	2							31	1
	Club subtotal	61	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	61	4
Club	Season	Scottish Premier League		Scottish Cup		Europe		Other		Total
Rangers	1997-98	12	0			2	0			14	0
	1998-99	28	1	1	1	4	0			33	2
	1999-2000	27	6	1	1	5	0			33	7
	2000-01	15	1	1	0	3	0			19	1
	2001-02	22	1	4	0	5	0	3	0	34	1
	Club subtotal	104	9	7	2	19	0	3	0	133	11
Club	Season	FA Premier League		FA Cup		Europe		Other		Total
Middlesbrough	2002-03	12	0	1	0			2	0	15	0
Club	Season	Football League First Division		FA Cup		Europe		Other		Total
Cardiff City	2003-04	45	1	1	0			2	0	48	1
	2004-05	28	1	1	0			4	0	33	1
	Club subtotal	73	2	2	0	0	0	6	0	81	2
Club	Season	Eredivisie		Dutch Cup		Europe		Other		Total
NAC Breda	2005-06	21	0							21	0
	Club subtotal	82	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	82	4
Club	Season	A-League		Finals		Asia		Other		Total
Central Coast Mariners	2006-07	15	0					2	0	17	0
	2007-08	15	0	3	0			3	0	21	0
	Club subtotal	30	0	3	0	0	0	5	0	48	0
Total		437	34	26	3	19	0	16	0	498	39

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

International

^[7]

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	18 June 1995	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia	Ghana	1-0	2-1	Friendly
2	9 April 2001	BCU International Stadium, Coffs Harbour, Australia	Tonga	16-0	22-0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
3	12 October 2004	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia	Solomon Islands	3-0	6-0	2004 OFC Nations Cup

Honours

With Australia:

• FIFA Confederations Cup: 1997 (Runners-up)
• OFC Nations Cup: 2004

With Central Coast Mariners:

• A-League Premiership: 2007-08

With Rangers:

• SPL Championship: 1998-99, 1999–2000
• Scottish Cup: 1998-99, 1999–2000, 2001–02
• Scottish League Cup: 1998-99, 2001–02

With Adelaide City:

• NSL Championship: 1991-92, 1993–1994

References

External links

• Oz Football profile
• Football Database profile

Australia Squads
Australia football squad – 1992 Summer Olympics – Fourth Place 1 Filan 2 Blagojevic 3 Longo 4 Zelić 5 Murphy 6 Vidmar 7 Gibson 8 Okon 9 Aramabasic 10 Slifkas 11 Markovski 12 Mori 13 Veart 14 Refenes 15 Popovic 16 Seal 17 Hasler 18 Corica 19 Maloney 20 Bosnich Coach: Thomson Australia squad – 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup Runners-up 1 Bosnich 2 Horvat 3 Lazaridis 4 Ivanović 5 Tobin 6 Zelić 7 Slater 8 Foster 9 Viduka 10 A. Vidmar 11 Kewell 12 Bingley 13 Hooker 14 T. Vidmar 15 Skoko 16 Trimboli 17 Mori 18 Aloisi 19 Tapai 20 Kalac 21 Muscat Coach: Venables Australia squad – 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup Third Place 1 Schwarzer 2 Muscat 3 Moore 4 Okon 5 T. Vidmar 6 Popovic 7 Skoko 8 Lazaridis 9 Aloisi 10 Emerton 11 Zdrilic 12 Bolton 13 Bresciano 14 Murphy 15 Foxe 16 Horvat 17 Corica 18 Chipperfield 19 A. Vidmar 20 Zane 21 Thompson 22 Sterjovski 23 Juric Coach: Farina Australia squad – 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup 1 Schwarzer 2 Muscat 3 Moore 4 Neill 5 Vidmar 6 Popovic 7 Emerton 8 Skoko 9 Viduka 10 Cahill 11 Chipperfield 12 Petkovic 13 Wilkshire 14 Colosimo 15 Aloisi 16 Zdrilic 17 McKain 18 Kalac 19 Culina 20 Milicevic 21 Elrich 22 Thompson 23 Sterjovski Coach: Farina