Mark Viduka reveals Harry Kewell feud rock bottom in ESPN Podcast

Socceroos legend Mark Viduka has revealed the real reason for his bitter falling out with Harry Kewell. They haven’t spoken in seven years.

Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka.

Socceroos legend Mark Viduka has revealed the depth of his falling out with former Leeds United and Socceroos teammate Harry Kewell in an explosive interview where the notoriously straight-shooting striker makes a series of dramatic claims.

The 44-year-old on Monday admitted he and Kewell “couldn’t even look at each other” when their feud was at its most heated when they shared the same dressing room at Leeds.

Viduka’s revelations about his bitter falling out with Kewell was followed by an explosive claim Socceroos legend Lucas Neill tried to sabotage his captaincy during the 2007 Asian Cup.

While the pair had fallen out while they were still teammates at Leeds, they did not go public with their mutual dislike until after Kewell left Leeds to join Premier League rivals Liverpool in 2003.

Despite still being Socceroos teammates trying to help Australia qualify for the 2006 World Cup, both Kewell and Viduka said at the time they wanted nothing to do with each other.

Now Viduka has revealed the rock bottom of their falling out.

“At Leeds, it got to the point, if Harry and I were in the sheds by ourselves, we wouldn’t even look at each other,” Viduka said in an interview with ESPN.

“It was that bad.”

Viduka reckons his sour relationship with his former agent Bernie Mandic affected Kewell’s perception of him right from the start.

Mark Viduka with teammate Harry Kewell in 2002.

Mandic was Kewell’s agent, but Viduka had years earlier moved on to be represented by a different player manager.

He said after Kewell’s move to Liverpool that Mandic was secretly pressing former Socceroos coach Frank Farina to appoint Kewell as Socceroos captain — and to have captain Paul Okon demoted.

Viduka at the time spoke out against the influence Mandic reportedly tried to wield inside the Socceroos dressing room.

Viduka also spoke out publicly calling for Craig Moore or Josip Skoko to step up as captain if Okon was unavailable.

He admits now it was the spark that triggered his falling out with Kewell.

“I had a problem with [Kewell’s agent] Bernie Mandic,” Viduka said.

“Bernie was my agent when he took me from Celtic to Leeds, but … I severed ties with Bernie.

“I think maybe our relationship at Leeds wasn’t that good because — and I can’t say for sure — I think that affected the way [Kewell] viewed me.”

Harry Kewell was furious.

He says their relationship has improved with the passing of time, but admits he hasn’t spoken to Kewell since 2013.

Kewell has previously given as good as he got in their very public feud.

Kewell in 2003 claimed he wouldn’t speak to Viduka until he received an apology for comments made about his captaincy ambitions with the Socceroos.

“Until he (Viduka) actually apologises for saying those things I’m not going to go out of my way to be nice to him,” Kewell said.

“Ultimately he said some nasty things that were so vulgar they couldn’t even be printed.

“Fair enough, if he had said it to my face but to slag me off behind my back and then deny it when it’s all on tape is pathetic. I ain’t going to be friends with him.”

The pair played together at the international level for another four years, before Viduka announced his international retirement in 2007 following a disastrous Asian Cup campaign.

VIDUKA CLAIMS LUCAS NEIL SABOTAGED HIS CAPTAINCY

Socceroos great Mark Viduka felt a “sulking” Lucas Neill tried to undermine him throughout Australia’s disastrous 2007 Asian Cup campaign.

Viduka captained the Socceroos in their first Asian Cup, which they entered with high expectations after the 2006 World Cup but exited meekly in the quarter- finals.

Viduka, who rarely speaks in the media, quit international football after the tournament and highlighted Neill’s “sulking” over missing out on the captaincy under Graham Arnold as a factor that disrupted Socceroos camp. “I think Lucas Neill at that stage came to that Asian Cup not in a good state of mind because of the fact that Graham Arnold had offered him the captaincy because he wasn’t sure whether I was going to come to the Asian Cup or not,” Viduka told ESPN.

“Then once I was at the Asian Cup, either (Arnold) wasn’t brave enough to tell me that I wasn’t captain anymore or whatever, and I felt that Lucas Neill was sulking that whole Asian Cup — through the pre-season, through the preparations for it and through the Asian Cup, and it affected other players. “I felt Lucas tried to undermine me. I think his priority was to be captain — more because of his other activities off the pitch rather actually than on the pitch stuff. That’s my opinion.” Viduka said some of his younger teammates’ approach to national team football had left him disillusioned.

The Socceroos book their tickets to the World Cup.

“I think some people came to that Asian Cup thinking more about themselves than they did about the national team,” Viduka said.

“Why? Because people who value themselves very highly and think more about their television rights and deals and all that than actually playing for their country. That was the main reason I stopped playing for the national team. “My problem was that my generation of players that I grew up with were a different breed to the newer generation, and to be the honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the newer generation of players.

“A lot of them were more interested in how many deals they were having on the side, through sponsorship and getting their heads on the television and things like that, than actually playing for the national team.” Viduka said he didn’t have any issues with Arnold, who has since worked his way back to the Socceroos head coach position.

“Hopefully he’s learnt a lot from the days of when he coached the national team at the Asian Cup — especially man management,” he said.

When looking at Australian football, Viduka said he believed there was “a big gap in terms of player development” compared to his time in the game, especially since the formation of the A-League.

He also lamented the closure of the FFA Centre of Excellence at the AIS in 2017. “There’s something missing with the player development,” he said. “I think that when they did the A-League, they concentrated more on getting the league set up but this junior system that actually developed players, I don’t think they paid enough attention to.”