Former Socceroo Zdrilic appointed new Perth Glory coach

Perth Glory have unveiled former Socceroos striker David Zdrilic as their new A-League Men head coach on a three-year deal.

Alen Stajcic, who still had two more years to run on his contract, stepped down as Glory coach this week to take up the head role at Western Sydney.

Zdrilic’s resume includes working alongside world-renowned coaches Ralf Rangnick, Julian Nagelsmann and Ralph Hasenhuttl at Bundesliga outfit RB Leipzig in Germany.

He also gained experience of America’s MLS at Chicago Fire, and became the first Australian to hold a coaching position in Italy’s Serie A when he joined Genoa in 2022.

The 50-year-old returned to Sydney FC at the start of last season as an assistant under then head coach Steve Corica, and he stayed on board when Ufuk Talay took over.

Glory finished bottom of the ladder last season, and Zdrilic is determined to lead the club into an era of success.

“I’m delighted to be here and can’t wait to start playing my part in driving the club forward,” Zdrilic said in a statement.“Perth Glory is starting an exciting new era with a new owner in Ross Pelligra, a new-look playing squad and new coaching staff.“There is a lot of hard work to be done, but the challenge is extremely exciting.“Not only are we looking to improve results in the coming years, but we are looking to embrace a totally new way of playing.“There will be a new, distinctive style and it is one I hope our supporters will embrace.”

Glory are in the midst of a huge rebuild on the back of last season’s wooden-spoon campaign, during which they spent more than half the season without an owner.

Darryl Lachman, Mark Beevers, Aleksandar Susnjar, Bruce Kamau, Antonis Martis, Jayden Gorman, Adam Zimarino, Salim Khelifi and Jaylan Pearman have all been let go.

Rising star Daniel Bennie secured a move to Queens Park Rangers, while Stefan Colakovski and John Koutroumbis also opted to pursue opportunities overseas.

Josh Rawlins returned to his parent club FC Utrecht at the end of his loan deal.

Glory have since signed former Socceroos defender Josh Risdon and ex-Perth skipper Brandon O’Neill, as well as former Melbourne City and Brisbane Roar midfielder Taras Gomulka.

Young attackers Nathanael Blair, Adam Bugarija and Abdelelah Faisal, and former Australia under-23 international Nicholas Pennington have also joined the club.

Left-sided Belgian defender Anas Hamzaoui and central defender Zach Lisolajski are other new additions.

Zdrilic is promising Glory fans an exciting brand of football.

“In terms of my coaching philosophy, drawing on my Red Bull background, our team will play an attacking, high-intensity brand of football which gets our members and fans out of their seats,” he said“That style is very much aligned to Perth Glory’s DNA.“We’ve assembled a squad of talented, dynamic and hungry players who are keen to play aggressive football on the front foot both in attack and defence.”

Zdrilic scored 21 goals across his 31 Socceroos appearances.

His most prolific display was an eight-goal effort in a 31-0 thrashing of American Samoa in 2001.

Archie Thompson scored 13 goals in that same match.