John Kosmina

John Kosmina

Personal information
Full name	Alexander John Kosmina
Date of birth	(1956-08-17) 17 August 1956
Place of birth	Adelaide, Australia
Playing position	Striker
Youth career
000–1973	Polonia Adelaide
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1973–1976	Polonia Adelaide
1977	West Adelaide Hellas	23	(12)
1978	Adelaide City	4	(0)
1978–1979	Arsenal	1	(0)
1979–1980	West Adelaide Hellas	44	(12)
1981–1986	Sydney City	150	(89)
1987–1988	Sydney Olympic	44	(13)
1989	APIA Leichhardt	24	(6)
1990	Sutherland Sharks
National team
1976–1988	Australia	60	(25[1])
Teams managed
1994–1995	Warringah Dolphins
1995–1998	Newcastle Breakers
1999–2003	Brisbane Strikers
2003–2007	Adelaide United
2007–2009	Sydney FC
2010–2011	Adelaide Raiders
2011	Croydon Kings
2011–2012	Adelaide United (Caretaker)
2012–2013	Adelaide United
2016–	Brisbane City
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Alexander John Kosmina (born 17 August 1956), known as John Kosmina, is an Australian former football (soccer) player and manager, who is currently the Senior Coach of the Brisbane City club. He is a member of the Football Federation Australia Football Hall of Fame.

Club career

Kosmina is of Polish Australian ethnicity. He played for Polonia and then West Adelaide, before signing for English side Arsenal in February 1978. However, he only played one first-team league game for the Gunners (as a substitute against Leeds United on 19 August 1978), along with 3 appearances (2 as a substitute) in that season's UEFA cup. He returned to Australia in May 1979.

On his return, he went on to become one of the National Soccer League's most prolific scorers, with stints at Adelaide City, West Adelaide (for a second time), Sydney City, Sydney Olympic and A.P.I.A. Leichhardt Tigers before retiring in 1989. The most successful of these was with Sydney City, being part of their 1981 and 1982 championship winning teams, as well as being the league's top scorer in 1982.

Managerial career

After retiring, he began coaching the Warringah Dolphins in the New South Wales state leagues, before coaching NSL side Newcastle Breakers, followed by a stint at the Brisbane Strikers. Both stints were largely unsuccessful, his sides reaching the finals only once.

Adelaide United

In 2003 he became the inaugural coach of Adelaide United. Kosmina coached United to an impressive 3rd in the final season of the NSL. Maintaining his job for the inaugural season of the Hyundai A-League, Kosmina led his side to the Minor Premiership but a poor finals series saw them finish 3rd overall. The next season saw mixed results for Kosmina and Adelaide United.

Finishing 2nd on the table behind Melbourne Victory, Adelaide managed to reach the grand final, only to be thrashed 6–0. Kosmina's criticism of the refereeing of that match, coupled with the devastating loss and a touchline ban earlier during the season for a scuffle with Victory captain Kevin Muscat, saw him forced to resign by the Adelaide board.^[2]

He was then appointed by Socceroos coach Graham Arnold as his assistant for the 2007 Asian Cup.

Sydney FC

After the sacking of Branko Culina by the Sydney Football Club Board, Kosmina was confirmed on 24 October 2007 as the new Sydney FC coach.^[3] Since signing with Sydney FC Kosmina made an immediate impact; winning his first game with Sydney 3–2 against rivals Central Coast Mariners at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Sydney FC beat the LA Galaxy 5–3 at Sydney's Telstra Stadium in a friendly, and also won a thrilling 5–4 victory against the Central Coast Mariners at Bluetongue Stadium. Following Sydney FC's poor run in the 2008/2009 season (missing the finals for the first time), John Kosmina had his contract terminated in late January 2009.^[4]

Adelaide Raiders

He was announced the manager of the Adelaide Raiders, a semi-professional club playing in the FFSA Super League.^[5] On 1 September 2011, it was announced he had signed as senior coach of FFSA Super League club Croydon Kings after more than 35 years away from the club.^[6] It was announced on 18 December 2011 that Croydon Kings had agreed to released Kosmina from his coaching contract so he could accept the Adelaide United manager position.^[7]

Return to Adelaide United

On 18 December 2011 he signed as caretaker coach with Adelaide United for the remainder of the 2011–12 A-League season.^[8] On 22 March 2012 it was announced he had signed a one-year contract with the club to stay on for the 2012–13 A-League season.^[9] On 28 January 2013 he stood down as manager of Adelaide United, citing a lack of trust at the club.^[10]

Current Role

He has been appointed Senior Coach and football leader of the Brisbane City club on a 3-year contract for the 2016 season and beyond, and expected to start training with the team after the conclusion of the 2015 season.^[11]

Media

He occasionally appears on Fox Sports as a commentator and football analyst. Kosmina co-hosts a weekly Internet television show about football on Australia Live TV with Ross Aloisi, Two Up Front^[12] and the episodes are on AustraliaLiveTV.com.

International goals

Scores and results list goal tally first.

No	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Opening Goal
1	27 October 1976	Beijing Workers Stadium	Chinese Selection	3–3	4–5	Friendly Game	No
2	27 October 1976	Beijing Workers Stadium	Chinese Selection	3–4	4–5	Friendly Game	No
3	9 November 1976	Eindhoven, The Netherlands	PSV Eindhoven	2–1	2–1	Friendly Game	No
4	2 February 1977	Olympic Park Stadium	Red Star Belgrade	1–3	1–3	Friendly Game	No
5	20 July 1977	Sydney Sports Ground	Arsenal F.C.	1–0	3–1	Friendly Game	Yes
6	28 July 1977	Olympic Park Stadium	Red Star Belgrade	1–0	2–3	Friendly Game	Yes
7	16 March 1977	Ba, Fiji	Taiwan	0–1	1–2	1978 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC and OFC)	No
8	27 March 1977	Sydney Cricket Ground	New Zealand	3–1	3–1	1978 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC and OFC)	No
9	10 July 1977	Adelaide, Australia	Hong Kong	1–0	3–0	1978 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC and OFC)	Yes
10	10 July 1977	Adelaide, Australia	Hong Kong	3–0	3–0	1978 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC and OFC)	No
11	28 August 1977	Sydney Sports Ground	South Korea	1–1	1–2	1978 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC and OFC)	No
12	28 August 1977	Sydney Sports Ground	South Korea	1–2	1–2	1978 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC and OFC)	No
13	20 May 1981	Olympic Park Stadium	Indonesia	1–0	2–0	1982 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC and OFC)	Yes
14	10 June 1981	Hindmarsh Stadium	Taiwan	2–0	3–2	1982 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC and OFC)	No
15	10 October 1982	Singapore National Stadium	Thailand	0–3	0–4	Friendly Game	No
16	10 October 1982	Singapore National Stadium	Thailand	0–4	0–4	Friendly Game	No
17	15 October 1982	Singapore National Stadium	Malaysia	0–3	0–5	Friendly Game	No
18	26 November 1983	Inglewood, Perth	Western Australia	2–1	2–1	Friendly Game	No
19	30 November 1983	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur FA	1–2	1–4	Friendly Game	No
20	30 November 1983	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur FA	1–3	1–4	Friendly Game	No
21	2 December 1983	Singapore	Singapore	1–1	1–3	Friendly Game	No
22	4 December 1983	Singapore	China PR	2–1	2–1	Merlion Cup	No
23	10 December 1983	Singapore	Thailand	0–2	0–2	Merlion Cup	No
24	15 December 1983	Singapore	South Korea	0–1	1–3	Merlion Cup	Yes
25	18 December 1983	Singapore	Singapore	2–2	2–4	Merlion Cup	No
26	2 June 1984	Sydney Cricket Ground	Rangers F.C.	2–1	3–2	Friendly Game	No
27	7 June 1984	Lang Park, Brisbane	Nottingham Forest F.C.	1–0	2–2	Friendly Game	Yes
27	21 June 1984	Sydney, Australia	Iraklis 1908 Thessaloniki F.C.	1–0	2–0	Friendly Game	Yes
29	14 November 1984	Manchester, England	Manchester City F.C.	1–2	1–3	Friendly Game	No
30	9 May 1985	Melbourne Cricket Ground	Clube de Regatas Vasco da Gama	1–0	2–1	Friendly Game	Yes
31	9 May 1985	Melbourne Cricket Ground	Clube de Regatas Vasco da Gama	2–1	2–1	Friendly Game	No
32	15 September 1985	Middle Park, Melbourne	Victorian All-Stars	0–1	2–3	Friendly Game	Yes
33	15 September 1985	Middle Park, Melbourne	Victorian All-Stars	0–2	2–3	Friendly Game	No

Honours

Player

With Sydney City:

• NSL Championship: 1981, 1982
• NSL Cup: 1986

Personal Honours:

• FFA Hall of Champions Inductee – 1999
• NSL Top Scorer: 1982 with Sydney City – 23 goals
• NSL Papasavas Medal (U-21): 1977

Manager

With Adelaide United:

• A-League Premiership: 2005–2006

Kosmina Street in the Sydney suburb of Glenwood is named for him.^[13]

John Kosmina Medal

The award given to the player of the match in the National Premier Leagues Grand Final each year is named in his honour.

References

External links

• FFA – Hall of Fame profile
• Sydney FC profile
• Oz Football profile
• Two Up Front

Australia football squad – 1988 Summer Olympics
1 Olver 2 van Egmond 3 Jennings 4 Yankos 5 Dunn 6 Wade 7 Farina 8 Petersen 9 Arnold 10 Kosmina 11 Crino 12 Davidson 13 Tobin 14 Hunter 15 Koczka 16 Bozinovski 17 Slater 18 Mitchell 19 Ollerenshaw 20 Gibson Coach: Arok