Bleiberg axes FFA CEO; Double Dutch at Hindmarsh and Reds young guns’ different paths
Why new Football Federation Australia chief executive James Johnson was axed by former Brisbane Roar boss Miron Bleiberg plus more, in this week’s 90 Minutes soccer column.
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MIRON SPOOKED BY A DECISION FROM THE PAST
FORMER A-League, NSL, NPL coach and player Miron Bleiberg says thoughts about Football Federation Australia’s new chief executive James Johnson will “haunt” him forever.
Bleiberg candidly explained what happened many years ago when Johnson was cutting his teeth in the hope of being a professional in Brisbane.
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“I had a player called James Johnson, he was on trial for me at the Roar,’’ Bleiberg said during an interview with The Advertiser when he said Australia’s youth system is broken last week.
“I had to make a decision between him and Massimo Murdocca, I took Massimo.
“That’s life and it’s haunting me.”
Johnson also recalled the time.
“He cut me,’’ he said.
TWO GE(E) RTJANS IN ONE HINDMARSH STADIUM
GERTJAN Verbeek attracted a man with almost the same first name from his native Netherlands to watch him work with Adelaide United – on game day and off the park.
Geertjan Jakobs, a leading football journalist from the Dutch Football International magazine, was in town for just four days but got to see Verbeek’s best game at the helm when the Reds beat Melbourne Victory 3-1 at Hindmarsh Stadium.
Jakobs is working on a Christmas special for the magazine featuring Verbeek.
“He has a great sense of humour and I saw him here as the most relaxed I have ever seen,’’ Jakobs said.
“He had a difficult time at his last club FC Twente before he came to Adelaide, things didn’t work out well for him there and it wasn’t a happy life for him.
“His family life was very good he said but the way he came across (as a manager) was different.
“He tells me he is happy here and I immediately thought that is a good match when he came to Australia.
“The mentality suits him here more than in Holland. In Holland players always ask “why this and why that?” they complained behind his back saying “they had to work too hard”.
“That’s the mentality, lots of coaches complain about that in Holland, the Dutch have their own opinions and not that easy to coach like in Germany, they have very strong opinions in Holland.
“They think they know better than their coach in Holland, form their own opinions early, they’re educated to do that and that makes a difference.
“This country is a better country to get his ideas across.
“But if you ask a question he doesn’t like he can become a bit cranky.”
Jakobs said Verbeek’s gruff exterior hides a very kind heart and is a team builder with great ideas about running a club.
“He is one of the most colourful guys in Holland,’’ Jakobs said.
“He needs good people around him to support him.”
TOURE AND D’ARRIGO WERE WORLDS APART
THE contrasting football journeys of two of Adelaide United’s brightest young stars have been highlighted as the duo signed new long-term deals with the club.
Louis D’Arrigo and Al Hassan Toure last week penned their maiden senior contracts, which will tie them to the Reds until the end of the 2022/23 season.
Yet, despite just 16 months separating the pair in age, they said their career paths crossed just once – as opponents – before they became teammates earlier this year.
D’Arrigo progressed through Football SA’s National Training Centre program and state teams, before spending two years at the Australian Institute of Sport and later joining United.
African-born Toure meanwhile, was overlooked for the development pathway and instead spent his junior days with Croydon, where he made his senior NPL debut aged 16.
The striker, who has scored six goals since making his professional bow in August, was also part of the Kings side which downed D’Arrigo’s Reds youth team 2-1 in March 2018.
“I didn’t really know him,” D’Arrigo, 18, said of Toure.
“But I heard of him at Croydon through a couple of friends that played there, so I knew he was a good player.”
TWO MARLEY REGGAE ICONS LOVE DIXIE
Bob Marley being awarded an Adelaide City life membership when he was in Adelaide almost 40 years ago for a reggae concert still has many connections.
After BEST MP Frank Pangallo told 90 Minutes last week that he had organised Adelaide City life memberships for Bob Marley and actor Kurt Russell, the legendary former striker John ‘Dixie’ Deans got involved in the conversation via a local soccer link.
Former Newcastle Jets and current Birkalla goalkeeper John Solari told 90 Minutes that Deans – a former Adelaide City striker who had his picture taken with Marley and former coach Râle Rasic at the club’s former home Olympic Sports Field at Kensington about 40 years ago – still gets a call for his birthday on July 30 from another Marley.
“Ziggy Marley the son of Bob Marley calls Dixie for every birthday,’’ Solari said.
Ziggy is a Jamaican reggae icon and will perform at WOMADelaide next year.
Deans and his wife Pat have been friends of the Solari family since befriending John Solari’s late grandfather and grandmother Frank and Martha Fantasia in the 1970s.
STATS PEPPERED PASSION
IT has taken him two months to crunch the statistics for more than 5500 local league players.
But football historian Dimitri Peppas’ SA player database is now complete from 1988-2019.
The website has collated data from all games in the state’s top three leagues, as well as cup competitions, from the past 31 years.
It includes 21,855 individual player records and 2752 different goal scorers.
Former West Torrens Birkalla, Adelaide Blue Eagles, Noarlunga United and Seaford goalkeeper Fraser McLean leads the way with 512 games and, remarkably, one goal.
Not surprisingly, fellow custodians dominate the top-five, which consists of Jon Fusco (503 matches), Ben Moore (490), Gino De Lucia (431) and Daniel Godley (415).
Ex-Para Hills, Birkalla, Modbury Jets, Raiders and Campbelltown City striker Jason Trimboli tops the goal scoring tally with 285 strikes from 409 games.
The database contains some fantastic names from yesteryear and is well worth a look for local fans: dimitriospeppas3.wixsite.com/sa-football-stats/players
SA PLAYERS ABROAD
Brandon Borrello – Freiburg (Bundesliga): Unused substitute in a 1-0 home win over Wolfsburg
Alex Chidiac – Atletico Madrid (women’s Spanish Primera Division): Recovering from an ankle injury
Ben Garuccio – Hearts (Scottish Premier League): Recovering from an ACL injury
Meni Haralampopoulos – Acharnaikos (Greek Gamma Ethniki): Played 90 minutes and voted best on ground in a 2-0 loss to Thiva
Awer Mabil – Midtjylland (Danish Super League): Scored in a 2-1 away win over Brondby
Craig Goodwin – Al-Wehda (Saudi Arabia Pro League): Played 90 minutes in the Kings Cup 1-0 win over Al Khaleej at home
Andrew Marveggio – Macva Sabac (Serbian Super League): Unused substitute in a 2-1 away loss to FK Napredak Krusevac