Graham Arnold
Personal information
Full name	Graham James Arnold
Date of birth	3 August 1963 (1963-08-03) (age 46)
Place of birth	Sydney, Australia
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position	Manager (former Striker)
Club information
Current club	Australia (Asst.)
Youth career
	Sutherland
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1980–1981 1982–1990 1990–1992 1992–1994 1994–1995 1995–1997 1997–1998 1998–2001	Canterbury-Marrickville Sydney United Roda JC Liège Charleroi NAC Breda Sanfrecce Hiroshima Northern Spirit	178 (68) 061 (22) 060 (23) 016 0(1) 063 (35) 028 0(7) 047 0(5)
National team
1985–1997	Australia	056 (19)
Teams managed
1989–1990 1998–2001 2000–2006 2006–2007 2007 2007–2008 2008–2009	Sydney United Northern Spirit Australia (Asst.) Australia Australia (Asst.) Australia U-23 Australia (Asst.)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Graham James Arnold (born 3 August 1963 in Sydney, New South Wales) is a former coach of the Australian national football (soccer) team. He was appointed to work as an assistant to Frank Farina in 2000. The two replaced Raul Blanco, who was the interim coach in charge after Terry Venables decided not to renew his contract with Soccer Australia after the failed World Cup campaign in 1997. Although Farina was sacked in 2005, Arnold and the rest of the coaching team survived and worked with coach Guus Hiddink for the Australian 2006 FIFA World Cup campaign, in which they made the second round of the finals. After Hiddink left, he became acting coach of the Socceroos.^[1] He is a member of the Football Federation Australia Football Hall of Fame.

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Club

Arnold was a striker who started his career at Gwawley Bay in 1969. He played for them until 1979 when he moved to Canterbury-Marrickville in the New South Wales Premier League. He then moved to Sydney Croatia in Australia's now defunct National Soccer League, where he was both the league's top goal scorer and player of the year in 1986. This was followed by a move overseas, where he made a name for himself in the Netherlands, playing for Roda JC and NAC Breda. He also spent time in Belgium with R.F.C. de Liège and R. Charleroi S.C.. He went on to play for Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Japan towards the end of his career, before finally returning home to play for the Northern Spirit FC.

[edit] International

Graham Arnold has represented Australia's senior national team 56 times, scoring 19 goals (85 caps, 33 goals including unofficial matches and "B" internationals). He was given his full debut by Frank Arok in a World Cup Qualifier against Taiwan at Adelaide's Hindmarsh Stadium on 23 October 1985. He scored on his debut as the "Socceroos" went on to record a 7-0 victory. His international playing career came to a sad end on 29 November 1997 in a World Cup Qualifier against Iran at the MCG when the score ended 2-2 and Australia was eliminated on the away goals rule after leading 2-0.

[edit] Managerial career

Arnold had a cameo role as a coach very early on in his career. He was coach for 2 games whilst he was a player at Sydney Croatia during the 1989/90 season. However, his proper coaching career started in 1998, when he was appointed player/manager of the Northern Spirit FC. He was the coach for 2 seasons, making the playoffs in their debut season. He was then appointed to the position of Australian assistant coach in 2000, becoming acting coach in July 2006, then appointed head coach in December 2006.

On 6 September 2006 Australia was defeated 2-0 in an Asian Cup qualifying game against lowly-ranked Kuwait. The FFA confirmed Arnold would remain Head Coach through to the end of 2007 Asian Cup campaign.

Australia started their Asian Cup campaign poorly, drawing with Oman in its opening Group stage game in Bangkok. Media pressure focused on Arnold and on 13 July 2007 Australia were beaten 3-1 by Iraq in the 2007 Asian Cup. Following the match, Arnold told the assembled media (in reference to some of the team's higher profile members), "There's some players who seem like they don't want to be here. I'm extremely disappointed."

In a poll conducted by Four Four Two, Graham Arnold, as voted by the subscribers, was found to have been the most influential reason for Australia's failed progression at the 2006 Asian Cup, with an overwhelming 78% of the vote^[2]

Since the tournament, Arnold has continued his role as Manager of the Australian U-23 side that is in the final qualification stages for the 2008 Olympics. He was also linked with the manager's position at Bolton Wanderers and Norwich City in England but lost out to Gary Megson and Glenn Roeder respectively.

With the appointment of Dutchman Pim Verbeek as new Australia manager, Arnold along with Henk Duut will serve as his assistant with the national side.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• FFA Coaching profile
• OzFootball profile
• Hall of Fame Induction article on SMH

v • d • e Australia squad – 1988 Summer Olympics 1 Olver • 2 van Egmond • 3 Jennings • 4 Yankos • 5 Dunn • 6 Wade • 7 Farina • 8 Petersen • 9 Arnold • 10 Kosmina • 11 Crino • 12 Davidson • 13 Tobin • 14 Hunter • 15 Koczka • 16 Bozinovski • 17 Slater • 18 Mitchell • 19 Ollerenshaw • 20 Gibson • Coach: Arok

v • d • e Australia squad – 2007 AFC Asian Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Neill • 3 Kisnorbo • 4 Cahill • 5 Čulina • 6 Beauchamp • 7 Emerton • 8 Wilkshire • 9 Viduka • 10 Kewell • 11 Thompson • 12 Jones • 13 Grella • 14 Holman • 15 Aloisi • 16 Thwaite • 17 Valeri • 18 Petkovic • 19 Carle • 20 Carney • 21 Sterjovski • 22 Milligan • 23 Bresciano • Coach: Arnold

v • d • e Australia squad – 2008 Summer Olympics 1 Federici • 2 North • 3 Leijer • 4 Milligan • 5 Špiranović • 6 Topor-Stanley • 7 Kilkenny • 8 Musialik • 9 Bridge • 10 Thompson • 11 Carney • 12 McClenahan • 13 Zadkovich • 14 Troisi • 15 Sarkies • 16 Celeski • 17 Rukavytsya • 18 Velaphi • 21 Simon • Coach: Arnold