Aurelio Vidmar has returned to Adelaide United after an eight-year absence
FORMER Adelaide United captain and coach Aurelio Vidmar has made an official return to the Reds as the new director of football on the club’s 15th birthday.
ADELAIDE United legend Aurelio Vidmar says his first task in his new role as the Reds director of football is to meet A-League boss, German Marco Kurz.
He was also adamant he won’t be coaching despite Kurz being a man down when assistant, Spaniard Jacobo Ramallo last month departed the club to join ex-Reds boss Josep Gombau’s Delhi Dynamos in India.
Vidmar’s job is expansive, overseeing the men’s and women’s teams and the set-up of junior academies within the next three years including an emphasis on building better relationships with all SA clubs.
“I will meet Marco (Kurz) tomorrow (Thursday) and get to know everyone most of the players, some I don’t know and meet the rest of the coaching staff,’’ Vidmar said as Kurz was preparing to give his side a team talk before facing Melbourne City in a friendly in Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon.
“No (coaching) that’s definitely not going to happen while I’m in this role, I’ll make that crystal clear.
“Right now I haven’t been on the inside yet (of the club) and it’s going to take some time to see what’s happening but what’s really important with the first team is to see that the football department is run in the right way.”
Vidmar is anxious to hit the ground running, Reds chairman Piet van der Pol who met the Reds legend when the Dutchman was an agent for ex-United striker Serginho van Dijk made a point of United’s football department being under review.
“I have know him (Vidmar) for years and he shares a football philosophy, how a club should be run and how a team should be playing and how our players should be developing, it won’t be a coaching role,’’ said van der Pol.
“He’ll be working as the leader of the football department and working closely with Marco (Kurz) and what we need to do for games, what do we do for scouting.
“Ante (Kovacevic, the Reds general manager of football) is also part of the football department and will stay in that role.
“We will evaluate the set up of the football department in the next couple of months.”
The Vidmar announcement also coincided with the club’s 15th birthday after Advertiser.com revealed he was destined to again work at United on August 28 where Nathan Kosmina - son of Adelaide’s first coach John Kosmina - was also promoted to chief executive of the SA Jockey Club.
Nathan held down the interim role since last October when Grant Mayer left the Reds to become the chief executive of the SA Jockey Club.
Nathan was 20-years-old when his father John Kosmina handed the captaincy to Vidmar.
Vidmar was also the club’s assistant to John Kosmina, retiring as a player in 2005 before the A-League started and winning the head coaching role in 2007.
He left the club in 2010 to work as an assistant Socceroos coach and chief Olyroos boss before landing a coaching job with Thailand’s Bangkok Glass in 2016.
He returned to Adelaide last year.
Vidmar believes A-League expansion has to happen in the eastern states but declared SA wasn’t ready to have another club partnering Adelaide United on the national football stage.