Tony Popović

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Personal information
Tony Popović
Full name	Tony Popović
Date of birth	4 July 1973
Place of birth	Sydney, Australia
Height	6' 1"
Nickname	Poppa, Tiger Tony
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Al-Arabi
Number	19
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1989-1996 1996-2001 2001-2006 2006-	Sydney United Sanfrecce Hiroshima Crystal Palace Al-Arabi	162 (14) 094 (13) 123 (6) 005 (0)
National team²
1995-2006	Australia	055 0(7)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14:55, 06 April 2007 (UTC). ² National team caps and goals correct as of 22:29, 06 April 2007 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Tony Popović [ˈpɔːpɔʋitɕ] (born July 4, 1973 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian football (soccer) player of Croatian descent. He grew up in the area of Fairfield , Sydney and attended Fairvale High School which he left in 1989 to follow his football career. He currently plays for Qatar club, Al-Arabi. His nickname amongst his team-mates is "Poppa".

1 Club career
2 International career
3 International Retirement
4 Notes

[edit] Club career

Popovic began his career with Sydney United before a move to play in the J-League, where he stayed for five years.

Tony Popovic signed for Crystal Palace on a free transfer in August 2001 from Sanfrecce Hiroshima. He became an integral part of the Palace defence, eventually becoming club captain.

Popović's contract with Palace expired at the end of June 2006, and he decided against accepting the Club's offer of a new contract. Speculation had linked him to a return to Australia, to play in the recently-formed A-League, but instead Tony went to Qatar, to play for Al Arabi.

[edit] International career

Before joining up to the full Australian national team, Popovic competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for Australia.

Tony Popovic began his full international career back in 1995 with the Australian national team. Over the next eleven years Popovic would make 55 appearances for the Socceroos, scoring 7 goals. Tony Popovic announced his retirement from International football in October 2006^[1]

The highlight of Tony Popovics career came in 2006 when the Australian national team qualified for the Squad under the management of Guus Hiddink and the tall defender was named in the competing squad. Popovic made his World Cup debut against Brazil on 18 June. Unfortunately, he suffered a calf injury 40 minutes into the game and was replaced by Marco Bresciano for the second half. His injury ruled him out of Australia's last match in the group stage, against Croatia, and their second round game against eventual winners, Italy.

[edit] International Retirement

On the 4th of October, Tony Popović announced his retirement from the socceroos. His final game was to be the Socceroos friendly against Paraguay. He scored his eighth goal off a Mark Bresciano free kick in his final minute on field to put the Socceroos ahead, 1-0.

[edit] Notes

^ http://www.smh.com.au/news/Sport/Popovic-announces-Socceroos-retirement/2006/10/04/1159641376572.html

	Australia squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup
1 Schwarzer \| 2 Neill \| 3 Moore \| 4 Cahill \| 5 Čulina \| 6 Popović \| 7 Emerton \| 8 Skoko \| 9 Viduka \| 10 Kewell \| 11 Lazaridis \| 12 Čović \| 13 Grella \| 14 Chipperfield \| 15 Aloisi \| 16 Beauchamp \| 17 Thompson \| 18 Kalac \| 19 Kennedy \| 20 Wilkshire \| 21 Sterjovski \| 22 Milligan \| 23 Bresciano \| Coach: Hiddink