35 Facts About Graham Arnold

Graham James Arnold was born on 3 August 1963 and is an Australian professional football manager and former player who most recently coached the Australia national team.

Graham Arnold went on to qualify Australia's U23 men's national soccer team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

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

Graham Arnold's next move was to take the manager role at struggling A-League club the Central Coast Mariners between 2010 and 2013, where he guided the club to a Premiership and a Championship.

Graham Arnold is a member of the Football Federation Australia Football Hall of Fame.

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

In 2018, Graham Arnold replaced Bert van Marwijk as Australian coach after the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Graham Arnold holds a number of A-League records: he has managed the fourth most games of any manager in the A-League, he has achieved the third most wins in the competition's history, he has the third-best career winning percentage of any A-League manager with 30+ games managed, he has the best career unbeaten percentage of any A-League manager, and he is one of just three managers to have won multiple A-League championships.

Graham Arnold holds the records for most games coached, and most games won, as manager of Australia.

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

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

Graham Arnold 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.

Graham Arnold 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.

Graham Arnold was given his full debut by Frank Arok in a World Cup Qualifier against Taiwan at Adelaide's Hindmarsh Stadium on 23 October 1985.

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

Graham Arnold was the coach for 2 seasons, making the playoffs in their debut season.

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

The FFA confirmed Graham Arnold would remain head coach through to the end of 2007 Asian Cup campaign.

Australia lost to Japan in penalty shootout in the Quarter Finals and Graham Arnold then continued in the role as manager of the Australian U-23 side, qualifying through to the 2008 Olympics.

Graham Arnold was linked with the manager's position at Bolton Wanderers and Norwich City in England but lost out to Gary Megson and Glenn Roeder respectively.

Graham 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.

Graham Arnold is recognised for having developed many young Australian talents during his time with the Mariners.

Graham Arnold recruited his assistant from the Central Coast Mariners Andrew Clark to join him in Japan.

On 9 April 2014, it was announced by Vegalta Sendai that Graham Arnold had mutually terminated his contract.

Graham Arnold was appointed as the new head coach of Sydney FC on 8 May 2014.

Graham Arnold was able to lead the team to a top place finish in Group H for their 2016 AFC Champions League campaign.

Graham Arnold started his revamp of the squad by releasing 13 players in the pre-season.

Graham Arnold's team was eventually crowned premiers after Melbourne Victory was unable to defeat Brisbane Roar, while Sydney had 4 games remaining.

Graham Arnold was named Coach of the Year at the Dolan Warren Gala Night.

Graham Arnold signed the likes of Milos Ninkovic, Bobo, Filip Holosko, Adrian Mierzejewski, and Marc Janko to the Sky Blues, each of whom made telling contributions to Sydney's success between 2014 and 2018 alongside a raft of key Australian players including Brandon O'Neill, Rhyan Grant, Andrew Redmayne, and Joshua Brillante.

Almost immediately after Australia's uninspired performance at the tournament reached its climax, Graham Arnold officially took the reins in the box seat of the national team.

In June 2022, Graham Arnold guided Australia to its fifth consecutive FIFA World Cup Finals appearance, leading the Socceroos to play-off wins over UAE on 7 June, and Peru on 13 June in Doha, Qatar.

Redmayne performed strongly in the shoot-out, saving a decisive penalty to help lift Australia to another World Cup; Graham Arnold himself had been subjects of heavy criticism for Australia's under-performance at the third round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification.

Graham Arnold has enjoyed a long association with the Olympic Games, having attended four Men's Football Tournament hailing back to Seoul 1988.