‘It’s an honour to return’: Former skipper back to bolster Socceroos coaching staff

1 month ago 10

Tony Popovic has turned to a trusted leader in Australian football to help guide the Socceroos into a World Cup year, appointing former captain Mile Jedinak as his third assistant coach.

Jedinak has already commenced work, joining Popovic in Sydney this week for World Cup planning meetings, and will sit in the technical area for the first time during a pair of friendlies in March against Cameroon and Curaçao.

Mile Jedinak celebrates scoring his side’s opening goal against Denmark at the 2018 World Cup.

Along with assistants Hayden Foxe and Paul Okon, goalkeeping coach Frank Juric and Popovic, Jedinak rounds out a five-man coaching panel, and all of them are former Socceroos players.

Few have done so with more class than Jedinak, one of the most authoritive figures in Australian soccer’s modern era, who sits 12th on the all-time caps list with 79 appearances. He played and scored at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, captained Australia’s famous 2015 AFC Asian Cup-winning side and played three seasons in the Premier League with Crystal Palace – all in a career that only bloomed in his mid-20s, after emerging in the A-League with the Central Coast Mariners.

Now he is building a coaching resume to match his playing exploits, bringing insights from his two-and-a-half year stint with Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest back to the national team with his first official non-playing role.

“It’s an honour to return to the Socceroos in an official capacity,” said Jedinak, who received a UEFA Pro Licence, the highest accreditation available, in 2024.

Mile Jedinak celebrates Australia’s Asian Cup win 2015.

“I’m looking forward to working with Tony and his coaching staff. They have done an outstanding job qualifying the Socceroos directly for the FIFA World Cup, and I am confident that I can contribute.

“I was always proud to wear the Socceroos shirt, and especially proud to captain my national team. Now I look forward to playing a part and representing my country in a different capacity.”

Jedinak began his coaching career with the academy at Aston Villa, the final club he played for before retiring in 2020. When Postecoglou moved to Spurs, he linked with his former Socceroos coach in north London, sharing with fellow assistant Nick Montgomery the controversial portfolio of set pieces – one of the aspects of Postecoglou’s game model that was most heavily criticised.

Still, Jedinak played a vital behind-the-scenes role as Tottenham broke a 17-year trophy drought with victory in the Europa League final over Manchester United – but he left the club just days later as the axe brutally swung on the “Angeball″⁣ era.

Mile Jedinak and Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham.

Spurs may be living to regret that decision given the dismal failures of replacement manager Thomas Frank, who is reportedly on the cusp of being sacked.

Jedinak then followed Postecoglou to Nottingham Forest for his ill-fated 39-day stint in charge, where Forest went winless in eight games before chairman Evangelos Marinakis withdrew his support and dumped his largely Australian coaching panel.

Now 41, Jedinak is considered a rising star in Australian coaching, but any ambitions to branch out on his own as a manager will have to wait until after the World Cup, where the Socceroos will face host nation the United States, Paraguay and a European qualifier.

Football Australia is close to unveiling the location for the team’s pre-World Cup camp and its tournament base camp, where players will train before and between their fixtures in Group D, all of which will take place on North America’s west coast.

Details surrounding their final friendlies are yet to be officially announced, but reports indicate the Socceroos will play Cameroon and Curaçao in Sydney and Melbourne as part of double-header events also involving China, who will play the other team on each night, in March’s “FIFA Series”.

Popovic’s squad for those matches is unlikely to include FC St. Pauli’s Jackson Irvine or Heart of Midlothian’s Cameron Devlin, who have both picked up long-term injuries for their clubs.