Matthew John Jurman ( ; ) is an Australian

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 plays 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 ...

for

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

club

Macarthur FC Macarthur Football Club is an Australian professional association football, soccer club based in South Western Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in Australia's premier soccer competition, the A-League, under Professional sports league organi ...

Club career

Youth career

After graduating from

Westfields Sports High School Westfields Sports High School (abbreviated as WSHS) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Mixed-sex school, co-educational Comprehensive education, comprehensive and specialist secondary school, secondary day school, ...

in 2007, Jurman furthered his football development at the AIS before signing for the

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

youth team in 2008. In his first year at the club, Jurman helped

to their first youth championship in the competition's inaugural campaign and later earned himself a senior deal at the club under then manager, John Kosmina.

Sydney FC

Jurman made his senior debut for Sydney FC off the bench on 9 September 2007 against Perth Glory. Throughout his time at Sydney, he went on to make 22 appearances in the league as well as a number of appearances for the club in the 2011 Asian Champions League. He scored his only goal for Sydney in a 2–1 away loss to

Kashima Antlers The are a professional association football, football club based in Kashima, Ibaraki, Japan. They currently play in the J1 League, the top tier of Japanese professional football leagues. The club has financial backing from Mercari, a Japanese ...

. Along with a strong finish to the season where he became a first team regular, Jurman is remembered for an incident that occurred during the 2010–11 season after Sydney FC striker Juho Mäkelä scored a crucial goal to put Sydney FC 2–0 ahead over Gold Coast United. Mäkelä jumped the fence to celebrate with the club's fans followed by the rest of the squad. During the jubilant celebrations, the fence collapsed and pinned Jurman's causing fears that he may have broken his leg. Jurman eventually played on and confirmed after the game that there was moderate swelling and bruising but no significant damage sustained.

Brisbane Roar

On 10 February 2011, it was confirmed Jurman had signed for A-League club Brisbane Roar on a two-year contract. He would be available for the beginning of the 2011–12 season. He won another league championship the first season and left after the second season to re join Sydney FC.

Return to Sydney FC

On 2 May 2013, Sydney FC announced that Jurman would be returning to the club for a second stint after signing a 1-year deal to join the Sky Blues. Jurman made his first appearance in the 2013–14 season for Sydney away to Melbourne Heart as a 64th-minute substitute for Brett Emerton in a game that Sydney FC won 2–0. On 8 March 2014 Jurman scored his first ever

goal with a 59th-minute header to level the Sydney Derby at 1–1 after Shinji Ono's opening goal. Sydney FC would go on to win the game 3–1, their first ever home derby win.

Suwon Samsung Bluewings

On 3 January 2017, Sydney FC confirmed that Jurman had been released, allowing him to join South Korean side

Suwon Samsung Bluewings The Suwon Samsung Bluewings () are a South Korean Association football, football club based in Suwon that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. Founded in December 1995, they have won the K League on four occas ...

. During Jurmans time with the Suwons he received the K-League Newcomer of the Year Award after a fantastic season with the team.

Al-Ittihad

On 9 July 2018, the Saudi Arabia Professional League team Al-Ittihad Club (Jeddah) announced Jurman would be joining them in Jeddah for the 2018–19 season.

International career

Jurman was first called up to the Australian squad in August 2017. He made his senior international debut on 5 October 2017 against

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

in a 2018 World Cup qualifier which finished in a 1–1 draw. In May 2018 he was named in Australia's 23-man

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of Military organization, military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and United States, U.S. doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a fireteam, ...

for the 2018 World Cup in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Career statistics

¹ – includes

final series statistics
² –

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

statistics are included in season ending during group stages (i.e. ACL 2007 and A-League season 2006–07 etc.); also includes 2005 OFC Club Championship statistics

Honours

Sydney FC *

Championship: 2009–10 * A-League Premiership: 2009–10 Brisbane Roar * A-League Championship: 2012–13 Australia *

AFF U-19 Youth Championship The ASEAN U-19 Boys' Championship (formerly AFF U-19 Youth Championship) is an annual international football competition contested by the national teams of the members of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and occasionally invited nations fro ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Individual *

Player of the Season: 2015–16

References

External links

*
Football-lineups profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jurman, Matthew 1989 births Living people Soccer players from Wollongong Men's association football central defenders Australian men's soccer players Australia men's international soccer players Australian people of Croatian descent Australian expatriate men's soccer players Australian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia A-League Men players K League 1 players Saudi Pro League players Sydney Olympic FC players Sydney FC players Brisbane Roar FC players Parramatta FC players Al-Ittihad Club (Jeddah) players Western Sydney Wanderers FC players Xanthi F.C. players Newcastle Jets FC players Macarthur FC players Australian Institute of Sport soccer players Suwon Samsung Bluewings players 2018 FIFA World Cup players 2019 AFC Asian Cup players Australian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia 21st-century Australian sportsmen