Alexander Hugh Tobin (born 3 November 1965) is an Australian former professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He is the fifth-most capped player for the Australia national team with 87 'A' appearances, including 30 as captain. He made his international debut on 9 March 1988 in an Olympic qualifying match against

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One China principle stipulated by the ...

(3–2) in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

Club career

Tobin spent his entire club career playing in Australia. He played most of his club career as a defender with

Adelaide City Adelaide City Football Club is a semi-professional soccer club based in Oakden, a north-eastern suburb of Adelaide. The club was a founding member of the now-defunct National Soccer League (NSL) and currently competes in the National Premier ...

in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

. Alex left Adelaide City in 2000, after sixteen years with the club, to join Parramatta Power. He finished his career with Northern Spirit. Tobin played a total of 522 senior club games in Australia. Tobin worked for the

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Mar ...

as assistant first team coach.

The Alex Tobin Medal

In 2008, the PFA Alex Tobin OAM Medal was inaugurated by the

Professional Footballers Australia The Professional Footballers Australia (PFA), formerly the Australian Soccer Players' Association, is an Australian trade union affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions and FIFPRO that represents Professional sports, professional ...

(PFA). It is to be awarded annually by the PFA to a current, or a former, player based on four attributes demonstrated by Alex Tobin throughout his career and which reflect the philosophy of the PFA: Leadership, achievement as a player, commitment to ones fellow professionals and service and dedication to the game. The first two medals were conferred on Joe Marston and, posthumously,

Johnny Warren John Norman Warren, MBE, OAM (17 May 1943 – 6 November 2004) was an Australian soccer player, coach, administrator, writer and broadcaster. He was known as ''Captain Socceroo'' for his passionate work to promote the game in Australia. The a ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Australia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Tobin goal.''

Honours

Adelaide City: * NSL Championship: 1986, 1991–92, 1993–94 *

NSL Cup The National Soccer League Cup (known most commonly as the NSL Cup) was an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic Australian soccer organised by the Australian Soccer Federation between 1977 and 1997. History The NSL Cup was or ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, 1991–92 * Oceania Club Championship:

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

Australia *

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBO ...

: runner-up,

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

OFC Nations Cup The OFC Men's Nations Cup, known as the OFC Nations Cup before the 2024 OFC Men's Nations Cup, 2024 edition, is the primary association football competition contested by the senior list of men's national association football teams, men's natio ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

; runner-up,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

Individual * FFA Hall of Champions Inductee – 2007 * Joe Marston Medal: 1991–92, 1993–94 with

References

External links

Central Coast Mariners profile

FFA – Hall of Fame profile

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tobin, Alex 1965 births Living people Soccer players from Adelaide Australian men's soccer players Men's association football defenders Adelaide City FC players Parramatta Power SC players North West Sydney Spirit FC players National Soccer League (Australia) players Australia men's international soccer players Olympic soccer players for Australia Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics 1996 OFC Nations Cup players OFC Nations Cup–winning players 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup players 1998 OFC Nations Cup players Australian soccer managers Central Coast Mariners FC non-playing staff 20th-century Australian sportsmen