All grown up: Vidmar ready to kick on from ALM triumph

West Australian

3 days ago

With a maiden A-League Men championship finally in his grasp, Aurelio Vidmar feels a long way from the young coach who used to shoot his mouth off.
Now he's ready to take Melbourne City up another gear, at home and in Asia.
"Sometimes in life, sporting life, you can have all the luck in the world and be blessed and win multiple championships," Vidmar told AAP on Sunday, after City's 1-0 grand final win over Melbourne Victory.
"And sometimes as a player, you can go 10 years, 15 years, your whole career, and not win anything.
"So does that define you, who you are as a coach or as a player? Probably not. But everyone always likes to see, is he a winner or has he won a championship?
"So if you want to call it a monkey off the back, whatever, it doesn't really faze me, but I'm rapt."
The former Socceroos captain's early days as Adelaide United coach included coaching a young Mathew Leckie and taking the Reds to an Asian Champions League Final and ALM decider.
But those achievements were arguably overshadowed by Vidmar's outbursts, which included calling Adelaide "a pissant town" and blaming "politics" for his team's 4-0 semi-final loss to Victory in 2009.
"Well, when you're young, you sometimes do some silly things," Vidmar, now 58, said with a laugh.
"You regret it when you get a little bit older, but sometimes you've got the passion, and those moments sort of just pop up and things happen.
"But it is what it is. I'm so rapt for everyone here, the players are really working their backsides off and really deserved that last night."
Vidmar hopes to keep most of his squad together, including Marco Tilio, whose loan from Celtic is ending.
Grand final goal scorer Yonatan Cohen is off-contract.
In finishing second behind Auckland FC, City were the highest-ranked Australian team and qualified for the Asian Champions League Elite.
Vidmar noted that would help on the recruiting front as City attempt to stay at the top.
He can't wait to return to Asia after City flopped in the group stages in their last involvement in 2023.
"It's a great competition," he said.
"Some of those nights have been the most memorable nights in my football career and there's so much more respect for it than it used to be 10, 15 years ago.
"Now we've seen all the money that's been thrown out to the Saudis, for example; theirs are going to be strong. The Japanese are always going to be strong.
"So a great tournament. We deserve to get there. So looking forward to that. It's going to be special."