Tony Popovic has been named as the new permanent head coach of the Socceroos by Football Australia.

The 51-year-old will replace previous manager and former international teammate Graham Arnold, who stepped down from the role on Friday after a difficult start to the third round of World Cup qualifying.

With the next international window just three weeks away, Football Australia stated their intentions to bring in a permanent successor quickly, and The Sydney Morning Herald first reported on Sunday that Popovic had won the race to take the country’s top job in a crowded field of candidates.

Popovic will sign a deal until the end of the 2026 World Cup.

“[Popovic] has a well respected status in Australian football. As a coach he is tactically astute… he understands Australia football very well, he understands the players very well, and importantly he understands the Socceroos ethos,” Football Australia CEO James Johnson said in a press conference.

“We’re excited about the new chapter for Australian football and the Socceroos. We have every bit of confidence that Tony will succeed, and the team will succeed under the leadership of Tony

Popovic said he was honoured to be given the opportunity to coach the side he once represented as a player so proudly.

“It’s a great honour… coaching the Socceroos is probably the dream come true as a coach,” Popovic said.

“I look forward to the challenge, I’m excited by it. The Socceroos are in a great position, we’ve had some great success… this campaign hasn’t started the best, but there’s enough time [and] enough games, and we should be aiming for that top spot to go through automatically.”

He will need to hit the ground running, with the Socceroos having only one point from their first two matches in World Cup qualifying, with a trip to Japan on the horizon next month.

Popovic insists he will be aiming high with the squad despite the flat manner in which Arnold’s tenure ended, with the side being criticised for their style of play, and Arnold criticised for his negative attitude.

He wants to see the team be more dynamic and more energetic compared to the first two qualifiers.

“The team looked a little flat – that can happen – they’re obviously some areas I think we can improve from the back to the front,” he said.

“We can be a little more dynamic, move the ball a bit quicker, move the ball into the box. These are the things that they were doing, which brought them a lot of success, [but] in the last two games there wasn’t a lot of evidence in that.”

Above all, Popovic wants to install an ‘anything is possible’ mantra within the side, calling on fans and players to ‘dream.

“I was always brought up (with the mantra) that anything is possible from my parents,” Popovic said.

“I’ve had that as a young player, as a senior player, as a coach, anything is possible.

“You always dreamed that this role might be possible. Now I’m dreaming that it’s possible that we come first in the group.

“I’m dreaming that it’s possible to do something special at the World Cup, but I also know that dream is just one part of it, you’ve got to work to do something special.”

Popovic’s first game in charge will be on October 10 when the Socceroos hist China in World Cup qualifiers in Adelaide.

MORE: Socceroos World Cup 2026 qualifying: Fixtures, results, scores, groups, squad

Who is Tony Popovic? Career, stats, trophies as coach

Tony Popovic was one of the players part of the Socceroos ‘golden generation’ in the late 90s and early 2000s, being an established player in England’s top flight and for the national team.

Capped 58 times for the Socceroos, he represented them at the 2006 World Cup and ended his career in the A-League with Sydney FC.

After serving as an assistant at Sydney and former club Crystal Palace, he made his name as a coach at the Western Sydney Wanderers, where he led them to a premiership and famous Asian Champions League victory in their first two seasons as a club (they remain the only Australian side to win the Champions League).

Whilst he has had small stints overseas as coach, his success has been in the A-League with the Wanderers and in subsequent stints at Perth Glory and Melbourne Victory, where he won another minor premiership and qualified for a Grand Final with the former, and won the Australia Cup and made last season’s Grand Final with the latter.

He looked set to sign a new deal with the Victory in the off-season, before negotiations broke down and he departed the club in June.

Overall he has coached 345 games, winning 148 of them for a win rate of 42.90%; he has won four trophies at club level, and has been named the A-League coach of the year four times, and the AFC coach of the year once after his Champions League win with the Wanderers.