A-League: Aurelio Vidmar returns to Adelaide United

Aurelio Vidmar is returning to Adelaide United as the A-League club’s director of football.

Aurelio Vidmar, left, with Adelaide chairman Piet van der Pol and CEO Nathan Kosmina

Aurelio Vidmar is returning to Adelaide United as the A-League club’s director of football.

And the Reds have appointed Nathan Kosmina, son of ex-coach John Kosmina, as chief executive officer. Kosmina has been acting CEO for the past year.

Vidmar was Adelaide’s inaugural captain and also the Reds’ coach from 2007-10 before joining the Australian set-up, where he had stints as a Socceroos assistant and coach of the under-23 national team.

“It means a lot (to come back), it has been a massive part of my playing and coaching career,” Vidmar said yesterday.

“I’m very pleased. Obviously it’s going to be a big challenge but nothing that hasn’t been thrown my way in the past.”

Vidmar was most recently manager of Bangkok Glass in Thailand in 2016-17 but said he had no ambition to again coach the Reds. “That is definitely not going to happen while I’m in this role,” he said. “I have to make that crystal clear, it won’t happen.”

Vidmar infamously described Adelaide as a “pissant town” after coaching United to a 2009 A-League semi-final loss, saying the club was riddled with internal politics and hidden agendas.

“You had to bring it up,” Vidmar said yesterday. “What is important is that there is football people here now and that is exciting.”

AAP