Mehmet Durakovic

Mehmet Duraković (born 13 October 1965) is an Australian-Yugoslav football (soccer) manager and former player. Born in Titograd, Yugoslavia, now Podgorica, Montenegro, he spent his playing career as a defender for a number of clubs in the Australian National Soccer League, with a brief stint in Malaysia with Selangor FA. Durakovic made 64 appearances and scored six goals for the Australian national team. He was head coach of A-league club Melbourne Victory from March 2011 until January 2012.

Club career

Durakovic was a defender for Brunswick Juventus from 1985 to 1988, making 61 appearances and scoring two goals for the club. He was part of Juventus' 1985 NSL Championship winning team. He had a short stint with Footscray JUST in 1989, making 25 appearances (one goal), before moving to South Melbourne FC where he made 138 appearances and scored five goals from 1989 to 1995. He was part of South Melbourne's 1991 NSL Championship winning team.

In 1995, Durakovic moved to Malaysia where he played for Selangor FA until 1998 before returning to Australia, joining Sydney Olympic, for whom he played 21 times from 1998 to 1999. His next NSL club was Gippsland Power, where he made 25 appearances in 1999 and 2000.

In his final move, Durakovic returned to South Melbourne in 2000, making a further 98 appearances until retiring in 2004. He was named in South's team of the century in 2000.^[1]

International career

Durakovic played 64 times for the Australian national team from 1990 to 2002, including several FIFA World Cup qualification campaigns. In the qualifying campaign for the 1994 World Cup, he scored a vital goal against Canada to level the tie on aggregate. In the subsequent play-off against Argentina, he marked Diego Maradona.^[1]

Managerial career

Durakovic's managerial career began with Port Melbourne Sharks in 2003. He then became the manager of the Victorian Institute of Sport Football (Soccer) Program. In 2008, Mehmet Durakovic was appointed the inaugural manager of the Melbourne Victory Youth Team. He stayed in the role until 2011, when he was appointed the caretaker manager of the Melbourne Victory senior team, following Ernie Merrick's sacking during Victory's Asian Champions League campaign.^[2][3]

Under Durakovic as caretaker head coach, Melbourne Victory won one of their remaining Asian Champions League fixtures and drew the others. Subsequently in June 2011 Durakovic was named as Merrick's permanent replacement, signing a two-year deal.^[4][5]

As Melbourne Victory's manager, he signed Isaka Cernak,^[6] Tando Velaphi,^[7] Marco Rojas,^[8] James Jeggo, Jean Carlos Solórzano,^[9] Harry Kewell,^[10] Fabio,^[11] Lawrence Thomas^[11] and Ante Čović.

Under the weight of expectation, particularly in the light of Kewell's arrival, Melbourne Victory started the 2011-12 A-League season poorly, failing to score in their first three games and remaining without a win until Round 4. As the season progressed, Melbourne Victory's performances remained inconsistent, and following successive away losses against Brisbane Roar and Central Coast Mariners which saw Victory fall to eighth position, in January 2012 Durakovic was sacked after only seven months in the job.^[12]

References

External links

• Mehmet Durakovic at National-Football-Teams.com
• OzFootball profile

v t e Australia squad – 2002 OFC Nations Cup Runners-up Costanzo Juric Milicic Mori Anastasiadis De Amicis North Petkovic Porter Durakovic Blagojevic Kisnorbo Trimboli Middleby Chipperfield Despotovski Horvat Pondeljak Coach: Farina