Andrew Bernal (born 16 May 1966) is a 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 ...

defender and football pioneer who played in Australia, England, and Spain. He was later a football agent and personal manager for

David Beckham Sir David Robert Joseph Beckham ( ; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Primarily a right winger and known for his range of passing, cross ...

. In 2021, he wrote and released his autobiography ''Riding Shotgun – The Original Wizard of Oz''. He currently works for the A-League football club Central Coast Mariners as Head of Athletic Development. In 2023 he released his second book The Vibe Manager an inside look at the 2023 A-League Champions.

Early life

Bernal was born in 1966 in Canberra to Spanish-born parents.

Playing career

Club career

After graduating from the Australian Institute of Sport, Bernal became the first Australian to play for a La Liga club when he joined Sporting Gijon. Gijon had intended to play him in their youth teams, however, as an Australia underage representative, he was classified as a foreigner, meaning he was not eligible. He went on to play almost 100 games of Spanish club football whilst on loan to

Albacete Balompié Albacete Balompié is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Albacete, in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Founded on 5 July 1939, it currently plays in Segunda División, the second tier of Spanish foo ...

and Xerez. Faced with compulsory military service as a Spanish citizen, Bernal chose to leave Spain and signed for

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

in September 1987. Returning to England from an Australian holiday, it was found that Bernal was playing on a student holiday visa and his English stint was cut shot. In August 1988, Bernal signed with the Sydney Olympic ahead of the

1989 National Soccer League The 1989 National Soccer League season, was the 13th season of the National Soccer League (NSL) in Australia. Background The Football Federation Australia, Australian Soccer Federation began the year by announcing that the NSL would be televis ...

. In 1994, he joined English team

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

in England for a reported £30,000 fee. He was part of the Reading team that narrowly missed out on promotion to the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

in the 1994–95 season. Bernal retired at the end of the 1999–2000 season, having made 187 league appearances.

International career

Bernal has also played for the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

national team on 21 occasions between 1989 and 1996, 13 times in full international matches and eight in B internationals.

References

External links

OzFootball profile

1966 births Living people Sportspeople from Canberra Soccer players from the Australian Capital Territory Australian people of Spanish descent Men's association football defenders Australian men's soccer players Australian expatriate men's soccer players Australia men's international soccer players La Liga players National Soccer League (Australia) players Albacete Balompié players Ipswich Town F.C. players Reading F.C. players Sporting de Gijón players Sydney Olympic FC players Xerez CD footballers Australian Institute of Sport soccer players English Football League players Central Coast Mariners FC non-playing staff 20th-century Australian sportsmen Expatriate men's footballers in England {{Australia-footy-defender-stub