Glasgow born Tom Sermanni has been head coach of the Australian women’s football team, the Matildas since 2005.
This is his second spell with the national side having taken the reigns from 1994 to 1997.
Last year he led the Matildas to AFC Asian Cup Champions following their penalty shoot-out victory over DPR Korea. This is the first Australian team, to achieve this accolade.
The Scotsman originally played his football at Albion Rovers and Dunfermline Athletic in his home country and for Blackpool and Torquay United in England in the late 70s and early 80s. After moving to Australia in 1983, Tom had stints with Marconi Stallions and Canberra City in the former National Soccer League, the fore-runner to today’s Hyundai A-League.
Tom moved to Canberra in 1984 as one of the first players to sign with the Canberra Metros in the NSW premier league in 1984 where he played the next six seasons before becoming player/manager with the same club for the following three years. Tom was appointed Head Coach at the Canberra Cosmos from 1999 to 2001 as the team competed in the National
Soccer League.
As a physical education teacher, Tom was also the ACT Schoolboys football coach for seven years from 1984 to 1991. Many of today’s Socceroos benefited from his tutelage and such was the high regard in which Tom was held that his progression from Schoolboys squads to Coach of the Men’s Program at the Australian Institute of Sport for 1991 and 1992 seemed natural.
Tom was voted AFC Coach of the Year in 2007 and the Matildas, under his charge, were named AFC Team of the Year in 2010. Previous Canberra players and ACT Sport Hall of Fame inductees such as Julie Murray and Sacha Wainwright had the privilege of being part of Tom Sermanni’s coaching programs.
SOCCER
Born: 1 July 1954
Inducted: 2012
Associate Member