Football Federation Australia today announced former Socceroo Ante Juric as the new Assistant Coach of the Westfield Matildas.
Football Federation Australia (FFA) today announced former Socceroo Ante Juric as the new Assistant Coach of the Westfield Matildas. In addition, Juric will also assume the newly created role of FFA-s Assistant Technical Director - Women-s Football.
Following 12 years as professional footballer playing for clubs in Australia, Portugal, Norway and Malaysia, Juric turned to coaching in 2006. Also a qualified teacher, Juric mainly focused his coaching talents mainly on youth boys and girls football development programs.
FFA Technical Director Han Berger believes that Juric combines a number of unique qualities that made him the ideal candidate for this particular role.
"Ante-s background as a teacher, his tertiary qualifications, credibility as a professional footballer and personality made him the outstanding candidate," said Berger.
"The two roles are very complementary and as well as working with Australia-s elite female footballers, Ante will also be working with all the key stakeholders along the development pathway to produce our future elite players.
“I am very confident that Ante will be able to excel in both these roles,” concluded Berger.
Westfield Matildas Head Coach Hesterine de Reus is looking forward to having Juric as her assistant as her team embarks on their 2015 FIFA Women-s World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games qualification campaigns.
“It is fantastic that a former National team player such as Ante, has taken the responsibility to help the Matildas go to the next level,” de Reus said.
“His experience at the top level as a player and his coaching experience will definitely help contribute to the development of the Women-s game in Australia,” concluded de Reus. Juric is also excited about his new coaching roles and the program ahead.
“It-s an honour to be able to take on these roles at this stage of my career,” said Juric.
“I-m really looking forward to working with the players and helping develop Women-s football in Australia.
“In addition I am eager to learn as much as I can from Hesterine and Han at the same time,” concluded Juric.