Wanderland to the World Cup: How Popovic turned Socceroos’ ‘impossible task’ into reality
Tony Popovic made the “impossible task” for direct qualification to the 2026 FIFA World Cup a reality for the Socceroos. ERIN SMITH uncovers the attributes which made him the man best suited to make the North American dream come true.
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Tony Popovic is a giant magnet – he has an invisible field that draws people in, inspires them to be better, work harder, dream bigger.
It is why those in his inner circle never once doubted he would guide the Socceroos to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
It was deemed an almost impossible task.
Socceroos hadn’t achieved direct qualification to the World Cup since the 2014 edition of the tournament.
Following a 0-1 loss to Bahrain and a 0-0 draw with Indonesia then coach Graham Arnold announced he was quitting.
Popovic was confirmed as the new coach three days later.
And the Socceroos haven’t lost a game since.
He orchestrated a 1-1 draw with Japan and then a historic 1-0 win over the Asian giants just eight months later to lock in second place in the group.
Popovic only had a few days with the team before their first game.
A team that was close to rock bottom.
But they came out and beat China 3-1.
Former Western Sydney Wanderers player Brendon Santalab played with Popovic at Sydney FC and was coached by him at Wanderers and Perth Glory.
“He’s the type of person that would have just got straight in, he’s got no ego, it’s not about him, it’s about the nation and the team and focusing on getting them to the World Cup,” Santalab said.
“He carries that aura around with him, in his eyes, in his body language, in his demeanour, he’s just a man built for success.”
The early days
It was former Socceroos captain John Kosmina who gave Popovic his first coaching job – an assistant role at Sydney FC in 2008.
Kosmina has known Popovic for most of his life. He coached a teenage Popovic at Sydney United FC.
Popovic worked his way up to the senior side quickly – playing 162 games across seven years – being named captain when he was just 20 years old.
It wasn’t Popovic’s skills on the pitch that made Kosmina pay attention.
“Popa will be the first person to tell you he’s not a gifted footballer,” Kosmina said.
“His application, his attitude, his desire and will to get things right and to win gets him by.”
Popovic’s playing career took him from Sydney United FC to Japanese side Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Crystal Palace in the English Premier League and Qatar.
On top of his domestic duties Popovic had a successful career with the Socceroos – making 58 appearances, including at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
He joined Sydney FC in 2007. Popovic, the captain, had a run of injuries and retired after 19 appearances.
Kosmina offered him the assistant coach role.
“He always had a good football brain, you can pick guys that are going to coach and the guys that don’t really want to go on with it,” Kosmina said.
“Popa had coach written all over him.
“His application to what he is doing, his focus. He has an incredibly strong mindset, high standards and he sticks to that, there is no bending.”
Born to lead
Those who have worked or played alongside Popovic say there is something about him that makes others want to follow him.
Kosmina said he was even like that as a teen – a born leader.
Santalab experienced it the first time he saw Popovic.
It was at the Gold Coast for a Sydney FC training camp – Santalab was trialling to join the team.
“He walked into the room and I said ‘Oh my God, who is this monster?’, and it was Popa,” Santalab said.
“I knew who Tony Popovic was but knowing he was going to be my teammate was something else.
“He walked in and you could just feel this aura about him as he walked into the room and this real presence.
“We had a meal, it was lunch, he stacked his plate with salad, it was just a mountain of salad, and everyone was watching him and wondering do we need to turn into rabbits and start eating salad. And we did.
“We started to follow Popa and his eating regime, everyone would look at his plate and see what he was eating and copy.”
Santalab said Popovic had this pull that made everyone want to follow him.
“He is a leader, he was born a leader, wherever he’s been he just leads people and people follow because everything he does is professional, it’s disciplined,” he said.
“He carries a recipe for success and if you don’t jump on board and follow his lead you will be out the door in a split second.”
Shannon Cole played with and was coached by Popovic at Sydney and was part of the inaugural Wanderers squad coached by him.
“He was always a leader, it was very much about this is the standard that I set for myself and you can either rise to this level or if you don’t then it’s not the place for you,” Cole said.
“He never said it with words, but he said it with his actions every day, in how he prepared for training, in the seriousness in which he approached training games.”
From player to coach
After finishing up as assistant coach at Sydney FC in 2011 and a brief stint as an assistant at Crystal Palace, Popovic took on the huge task of establishing A-League expansion side Western Sydney Wanderers.
He had to start from scratch – giving him the chance to hand pick his squad.
Cole left Sydney FC at the end of the 2011/12 season and moved to America with the hopes of picking up a contract. His agent heard that Popovic was looking to sign Cole for the inaugural Wanderers squad.
“I knew if Popa was part of the project it was probably going to be pretty successful,” Cole said.
“I’m paraphrasing here but he said something along the lines of ‘Shannon you know that we’re going to win, you know that we will win things and compete for trophies’.”
That was all it took – after one phone call with Popa, Cole made the decision to relocate back to Australia.
“One of the quotes that he stuck on the wall that meant the most to me was ‘If you want to achieve something that you’ve never achieved then you must do something that you’ve never done before’,” Cole said.
“In the context of that team it meant we were going to push ourselves harder and further than any of us have.
“Whenever we were at a breaking point, physically or emotionally he would remind us this is what it takes, you have to push the limits.”
That first season, 2012/13, Wanderers won the premiership but fell to Central Coast in the grand final.
Cole said a key part of Popovic’s success as a coach was his emotional intelligence.
“I remember one game in particular, we were down two or three goals away to Melbourne Victory and that’s a tough moment to face at half time,” Cole said.
“It’s one where you expect to get ripped apart but the angle he took was the opposite. It was all about belief, it was all about trust in what we can do and what we’re capable of doing.
“I can’t remember the outcome but it was his ability to identify the energy of the room and energy of the group that allowed him to get the best out of us in that moment.”
Doing the impossible
In 2014 Popovic guided the Wanderers to the Asian Champions League final and they became the first Australian team to win the tournament.
Santalab was part of the squad. It was his first year at the club.
“We defeated all odds in the Asian Champions League with a squad worth $3.2 million playing squads worth $100 million plus and we went over there and got the job done,” Santalab said.
“He is about no egos, no idiot policies and it is done through grit, hard work and humbleness taking on challenges.”
Santalab said Popovic had a knack for getting the best out of players.
“There’s so many little things that he focuses on and it separates him from the rest,” he said.
“It’s the finer details, it’s the attitude, it’s a discipline, it’s professionalism and people willing to run through brick walls to take themselves to that whole new level – that’s how he was as a player and that is what he expects from the players that he has under his guidance.”
The World Cup
Coming in mid-qualification really hampered Popovic’s ability to reshape the Socceroos – he had to work with what he had in front of him.
His first focus was on defence – you can’t lose games if you don’t concede goals.
Cole said it was a tactic that delivered success for him during his opening season at Wanderers.
“I’m not surprised he went back to being structurally sound first, that hard to beat team, do not concede goals because essentially they were trying to qualify,” he said.
Kosmina said he had no doubt Popovic had a plan in place to take the Socceroos to a new level come the World Cup in June 2026.
“Everyone was expecting the worst when Arnie stepped down but Popa has come in and turned it around, he put his ideas in place and the dressing room responded,” Kosmina said.
“Popa is meticulous down to the last detail, he will have everything planned out and have mapped out what he wants to do.
“He’s been building on camp after camp and I think it will only get better when we get to the World Cup.”
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