Tony Popovic (born 4 July 1973) is an Australian

association football 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 ...

manager and former player. He is currently head coach of the

Australia national football team Australia national soccer team most commonly refers to: * Australia men's national soccer team * Australia women's national soccer team Australia national soccer team may also refer to: * Australia men's national soccer B team * Australia men's nat ...

. He guided the team to qualify for the

2026 World Cup The 2026 FIFA World Cup, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's soccer championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will take pl ...

becoming the first Australian to play for and manage the team at a World Cup. As a player Popovic's usual position was

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 ...

. Starting in 1989 at

Sydney United Sydney United 58 Football Club is a semi-professional soccer club and current NSW NPL Champions based in Edensor Park, Sydney, New South Wales Australia. The club was formed as Sydney Croatia in 1958, by Croatian Australians in the area, but it ...

he went on to play for

Sanfrecce Hiroshima Sanfrecce Hiroshima () is a Japanese professional association football, football club based in Hiroshima. The club competes in the J1 League, top flight of the Japanese football league system. Sanfrecce is one of the most successful clubs in Ja ...

of Japan and

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 ...

side

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

, among other clubs. He appeared with the Australian national team at the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

, where he played against reigning World Champions

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Popovic started his coaching career in 2008 with

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, ...

. After a brief stint as assistant manager at Crystal Palace he was chosen as the inaugural manager of Western Sydney Wanderers at the start of the 2012–13 season. His major achievements as a manager are winning the

2012–13 A-League The 2012–13 A-League was the 36th season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the eighth season of the Australian A-League since its establishment in 2004. The 2012–13 season saw the introduction of a new Western Sydney-based team, the r ...

Premiership and

2014 AFC Champions League The 2014 AFC Champions League was the 33rd edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 12th under the current AFC Champions League title. Guangzhou Evergrande were the d ...

with the Wanderers, the

2018–19 A-League The 2018–19 A-League was the 42nd season of national level soccer in Australia, and the 14th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. The regular season commenced on 19 October 2018 and concluded on 28 April 2019. The play-offs began ...

Premiership with

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...

and an Australia Cup with Melbourne Victory in 2022. He holds the record of coaching the most A-League Grand Final losses with 5 to the end of the 2023/2024 season. He was appointed as coach of Australia in 2024 and led them to qualification for the

2026 FIFA World Cup The 2026 FIFA World Cup, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's Association football, soccer championship contested by the List of men's n ...

. He is the father of Kristian and Gabriel Popovic, both of whom are also professional footballers.

Club career

Early career

Popovic was born in Sydney to a Croatian family, and grew up in

Fairfield, New South Wales Fairfield is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Being in the centre of the Cumberland Plain, Fairfield is located west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrat ...

. He began his career with

. He rose through the youth ranks, making 162 appearances in seven years for the first team, before moving to play in the

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

. Popovic signed with

where he stayed for five years scoring 13 goals in 94 appearances.

Crystal Palace

Popovic signed for

on a free transfer in August 2001 from

. He became an integral part of the Palace defence, eventually becoming

club captain The captain of a football/soccer team, sometimes known as the skipper, is a team member chosen to be the on-pitch leader of the team; they are often one of the older or more experienced members of the squad, or a player that can heavily influ ...

. He played more than 120 matches for Crystal Palace. In his last season he played for Crystal Palace in 21

matches. In total he made more than 120 appearances for the club. 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

, signing a two-year deal, with coach

Branko Culina Branko Culina (; born 1 October 1957) is a soccer coach and former player. He previously managed Sydney FC and the Newcastle Jets in the A-League. Playing career Culina was born in Zadar, Socialist Republic of Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia and emigra ...

also announcing him the club's captain. 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.

International career

Popovic competed at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

in Barcelona for the Australia U23 team. He began his full international career in 1995 with the Australia 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

under the management of

Guus Hiddink Guus Hiddink (; born 8 November 1946) is a Dutch former football manager and professional player. He enjoyed a long career playing as a midfielder in his native Netherlands. Retired as player in 1982, Hiddink went into management, leading both c ...

. 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 Harry Kewell (born 22 September 1978) is an Australian soccer coach, manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Yokohama F. Marinos in the J1 League. As a player, Kewell represented Leeds United F.C., Leeds United, Liverpool ...

. The tall defender was named in the competing squad and made his World Cup debut against

on 18 June. He suffered a calf injury 40 minutes into the game and was replaced by

Mark Bresciano Mark Bresciano ( ; ; born 11 February 1980) is an Australian former professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. Born in Melbourne, Bresciano played youth football for Bulleen Lions, before moving into the National Soccer League wi ...

for the second half. 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, Popovic announced his retirement from the Socceroos. 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.

Coaching career

After retiring, Popovic moved into an assistant coach's role with

, where he remained until February 2011, when he returned to England and to

as first team coach, after former teammate

Dougie Freedman Douglas Alan Freedman (born 25 May 1974) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is currently the sporting director of Al-Diriyah, where he has been since 2025. Freedman played as a striker, primarily for Crystal Pal ...

was appointed manager.

Western Sydney Wanderers

On 17 May 2012, Popovic was announced as inaugural manager of A-League club

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, Wanderers, or simply as WSW) is an Australian professional association football club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in t ...

. 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. In Wanderers' first season, Popovic was named A-League Coach of the Year after finishing first in the league. In the 2013–14 season Popovic led Wanderers to the 2014 AFC Champions League Final in the club's 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. With poor recruiting, the loss of assistant coach

Ante Milicic Ante Milicic ( ; ; (born 4 April 1974) is an Australian soccer manager and former professional player who currently is the head coach of the China women's national football team. Personal life The son of Croatian immigrants, Milicic grew up i ...

, and a gruelling 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 The 2015 AFC Champions League was the 34th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 13th under the current AFC Champions League title. Guangzhou Evergrande won the tourna ...

. Despite an unfavorable season Popovic signed a new three-season deal with Western Sydney Wanderers, which would keep him at the club helm until 2018.

Karabükspor

On 1 October 2017, Popovic made a shock announcement that he had resigned from

to coach Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

club Karabükspor. It came less than a week out from the start of the

2017–18 A-League The 2017–18 A-League was the 41st season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the 13th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. The season began on 6 October 2017 and ended with the Grand Final on 5 May 2018. Sydney FC won the A-Le ...

season. After nine games, on 15 December 2017, he was sacked by the club and was owed AUD$1.4M compensation. The club's entire boardroom quit during his time at the club and after he left, the club went into financial administration, began a relegation freefall and were ultimately dissolved in late 2022.

Perth Glory

On 11 May 2018, Popovic was confirmed as

's new manager following the dismissal of

Kenny Lowe Kenny Lowe (born 6 November 1961) is an English football coach and former player who is the manager of Australian side Perth SC. Kenny played for ten clubs in England, and had a stint in Australia also. He later managed Gateshead F.C., Gateshea ...

at the end of the 2017–18 season. His first game in charge was a pre-season friendly against Chelsea which the Glory lost 0–1. Under Popovic's management, Perth won the

premiership.

Xanthi FC

On 26 August 2020, shortly after coaching Perth to a 2–0 loss to

in the A-League semi finals, Popovic activated a contractual clause allowing him to leave the club for a European team, after signing with Greek Super League side Xanthi FC, that was bought by Greek-Australian business tycoon Bill Papas. He lasted five months, being sacked with the club in 5th place and four points from the top. Goalkeeping coach

Zeljko Kalac Zeljko Kalac (born 16 December 1972) is an Australian association football, soccer coach and former player who is currently the goalkeeping coach for the Iraq national football team. Standing at 2.02 m, Kalac is the tallest player to have ...

stated later that Popovic was sabotaged and fired due to the owners wanting more control over decisions. Papas would later be accused by Australian banking authorities over an alleged loan fraud scheme that cost multiple banks over $500 million AUD in total.

Melbourne Victory

On 21 April 2021,

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

appointed Popovic head coach on a three-year contract to replace

Grant Brebner Grant Ian Brebner (born 6 December 1977) is a Scottish football coach and former player who was the head coach at Australian side Melbourne Victory. Born in Edinburgh, Brebner joined Manchester United as a 16-year-old in 1994. While at Mancheste ...

and

Steve Kean Stephen Kean (born 30 September 1967) is a Scottish football coach and former player who was most recently the manager of Georgian club Torpedo Kutaisi. Kean played as a winger for clubs in the lower divisions of Scottish, English and Portugu ...

, who coached the team to last place in the previous season. Popovic had early success, bringing the club back to the top of the A-League table after eight games and winning the

2021 FFA Cup The 2021 FFA Cup was the eighth season of the FFA Cup, the main national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. Thirty-two teams contested the competition proper from the round of 32, including 10 of the 12 A-League teams (with two teams ...

on 5 February 2022. After guiding Melbourne Victory to the 2024 A-League Grand Final, which they lost to 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 ...

, Popovic left Melbourne Victory at the end of the season.

Australia

Popovic was named as the head coach of the Australian national team on 23 September 2024.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

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 ...

: 3rd place,

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

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 ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Manager

Western Sydney Wanderers *

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

: Premiers

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

; runner-up 2013–14, 2015–16 * A-League Men Finals runner-up:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

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 ...

Perth Glory * A-League Men: Premiers 2018–19 * A-League Men Finals runner-up:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Melbourne Victory * A-League Men Regular Season runner-up: 2021–22 * A-League Men Finals runner-up:

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Australia Cup The Australia Cup (currently known as the Hahn Australia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the national association football, soccer single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Fo ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Assistant Coach for Sydney FC * A-League Premiership: 2009–10 * A-League Championship: 2009–10

Individual

* A-League Men Coach of the Year:

, 2018–19, 2021–22 * PFA A-League Manager of the Season:

, 2018–19 * AFC Coach of the Year: 2014

References

External links

* * *
Player profile – Tony Popovic
Sydney FC

Oz Football {{DEFAULTSORT:Popovic, Tony 1973 births Living people Sydney United 58 FC players Sanfrecce Hiroshima players Crystal Palace F.C. players Sydney FC players Premier League players Al-Arabi SC (Qatar) players A-League Men players J1 League players National Soccer League (Australia) players Crystal Palace F.C. non-playing staff A-League Men managers Western Sydney Wanderers FC managers Perth Glory FC managers Melbourne Victory FC managers Australia men's national soccer team managers Western Sydney Wanderers FC non-playing staff Kardemir Karabükspor managers Qatar Stars League players Australian people of Croatian descent Australia men's international soccer players Olympic soccer players for Australia Australian expatriate men's soccer players Australian expatriate soccer managers Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Australian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Australian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Soccer players from Sydney Men's association football defenders Australian soccer managers Australian men's soccer players Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics 1996 OFC Nations Cup players 2000 OFC Nations Cup players OFC Nations Cup–winning players 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Expatriate football managers in Greece Expatriate football managers in Turkey English Football League players