Tony Popovic

Tony Popovic (Croatian: Tony Popović, pronounced [pǒpoʋit͡ɕ]; born 4 July 1973) is an Australian former football player who is the current head coach of A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers.
As a player Popovic's usual position was centre-back. Starting in 1989 at Sydney United he went on to play for Sanfrecce Hiroshima of Japan and Premier League side Crystal Palace, among other clubs. He appeared with the Australian national team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, where he played against reigning World Champions Brazil.
Popovic started his managing career in 2008 with Sydney FC. After a brief stint as assistant at Crystal Palace he was chosen as the inaugural manager of Western Sydney Wanderers at the start of the 2012–13 season.

Popovic playing for Sydney FC in 2008

Popovic playing for Sydney FC in 2008

Early career

Popovic was born in Sydney, New South Wales to a Croatian family. Popovic grew up in Fairfield, New South Wales. Popovic began his career with Sydney United. He rose through the youth ranks, making 162 appearances in seven years for the first team, before moving to play in the J1 League. Popovic signed with Sanfrecce Hiroshima where he stayed for five years scoring 13 goals in 94 appearances.

Crystal Palace FC

Tony Popovic signed for Crystal Palace on a free transfer in August 2001 from Sanfrecce Hiroshima. He became an integral part of the Palace defence, eventually becoming club captain. He played more than 120 matches for Crystal Palace. In his last season he played for Crystal Palace in 21 Premier League 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 Sydney FC, signing a two-year deal, with coach Branko Čulina 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.

Popovic competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for the Australian U-23 team. He began his full international career in 1995 with the Australian 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 FIFA World Cup under the management of Guus Hiddink. 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. The tall defender was named in the competing squad and made his World Cup debut against Brazil on 18 June. He suffered a calf injury 40 minutes into the game and was replaced by Marco Bresciano 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 Tony 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.

Popovic in 2010.

After retiring, Popovic moved into an assistant coach's role with Sydney FC, where he remained until February 2011, when he returned to England and to Crystal Palace as first team coach, after former team-mate Dougie Freedman was appointed manager.

Western Sydney Wanderers

On 17 May 2012, Popovic was announced as inaugural manager of A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers. 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 clubs 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, and a grueling 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. Despite an unfavorable season Popovic signed new three-season deal with Western Sydney Wanderers, which would keep him at the club helm until 2018.

International goals

Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Result	Competition	Scored
19 June 2000	Papeete, Tahiti	Cook Islands	17–0	Won	Oceania Nations Cup	1 (1)
9 April 2001	BCU International Stadium	Tonga	22–0	Won	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)	1 (2)
11 April 2001	BCU International Stadium	American Samoa	31–0	Won	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)	2 (4)
16 April 2001	BCU International Stadium	Samoa	11–0	Won	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)	2 (6)
12 February 2003	Boleyn Ground, London	England	3–1	Won	Friendly	1 (7)
7 September 2006	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane	Paraguay	1–1	Draw	Friendly	1 (8)

Managerial statistics

As of 12 January 2017

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	Win %
Western Sydney Wanderers	17 May 2012	Present	7002157000000000000♠157	7001660000000000000♠66	7001360000000000000♠36	7001550000000000000♠55	7001420400000000000♠42.04
Total			7002157000000000000♠157	7001660000000000000♠66	7001360000000000000♠36	7001550000000000000♠55	7001420400000000000♠42.04

As a player

Australia

• OFC Nations Cup: 1996, 2000, 2004

As a manager

Western Sydney Wanderers

• A-League

Premiers (1): 2012–13

Runners-up (2): 2013–14, 2015–16

• A-League Finals

Runners-up (3): 2013, 2014, 2016

• AFC Champions League

Winners (1): 2014

• FIFA Club World Cup

Sixth-place (1): 2014

Individual

• A-League Coach of the Year: 2012–13
• PFA A-League Manager of the Season: 2012-13
• AFC Champions League Winning Coach: 2014
• AFC Coach of the Year: 2014