Graham Arnold

Graham James Arnold (born 3 August 1963) is an Australian soccer manager and former player.

Arnold was a striker who started his career at Gwawley Bay in 1969.

He played for them and Sutherland representative teams concurrently until 1979 when he moved to Canterbury-Marrickville in the New South Wales Premier League.

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.

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 Kerkrade 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.

Graham Arnold has represented Australia's senior national team 56 times in 'A' international matches, scoring 19 goals (85 caps, 33 goals including unofficial matches and 'B' internationals).

He was coach for 2 games while he was a player at Sydney Croatia during the 1989/90 season.

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.

Arnold had a cameo role as a coach very early on in his career.

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.

Arnold was appointed to work as a head coach of the Australian national soccer team in 2000.

He was then appointed to the position of Australian assistant coach in 2000, becoming interim coach in July 2006.

After head coach Frank Farina was sacked in 2005, Arnold worked with Guus Hiddink for the 2006 FIFA World Cup campaign, in which they made the second round of the finals.

After Hiddink left, he became interim coach of the Socceroos.

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 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 the eventual winners Iraq in the 2007 Asian Cup.

Australia went on to be beaten by Japan in penalty shootout in the Quarter Finals.

Arnold went on to qualify Australia's U23 men's national soccer team (nicknamed the Olyroos) for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Arnold then continued in the role as manager of the Australian U-23 side, qualifying through to 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.

Arnold then went on to assist Pim Verbeek for qualification of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Arnold went on to take the manager role at A-League club the Central Coast Mariners between 2010 and 2013, where he guided the club to a Premiership and a Championship.

He is a member of the Football Federation Australia Football Hall of Fame.

Arnold went on to win two Premierships, one Championship and an FFA Cup with Sydney FC.

With the appointment of Dutchman Pim Verbeek as the Australian manager, Arnold along with Henk Duut served as his assistant to the national side during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

On 9 February 2010, it was announced that Arnold will take on the position of head coach for the Central Coast Mariners until the end of the 2012–2013 season.

Arnold is recognised as one of the A-League's greatest ever managers, in part due to his contribution to the Central Coast Mariners Football Club between 2010 and 2013.

At the conclusion of the 2011–12 A-League season he rejected a lucrative contract from Sydney FC and decided to stay on with the Mariners signing a one-year extension to his original contract with the club.

His daughter, Elissa Arnold, was as of February 2017 partner of Trent Sainsbury, a Socceroo player.

In August 2018, Arnold was appointed head coach of the Socceroos - Australia's senior men's national soccer team.

Arnold holds a number of A-League records: he has managed the second most games of any manager in the A-League (211), he has achieved the second most wins in the competition's history (116), he has the best career winning percentage of any A-League manager (54.9%), he has the best career unbeaten percentage of any A-League manager (81.5%), and he is one of just three managers to have won multiple A-League championships.

In 2018 he replaced Bert van Marwijk as Australian coach after the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Under Arnold, Australia qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, during which Australia achieved their most successful World Cup campaign: after recording multiple group stage wins for the first time, with their only group stage loss being to eventual runners-up France, Australia qualified for the Round of 16 for the second time in their history, where they narrowly lost to eventual champions Argentina.

Arnold Place in the Sydney suburb of Glenwood is named for him.