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Damian Mori is a coach on the rise

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Roar Guru
24th March, 2022
10

One of football’s greatest myths is that former strikers aren’t cut out to be successful coaches.

The likes of Johan Cruyff, Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough might have a thing or two to say about that. Even closer to home, names such as John Kosmina and Graham Arnold can be used in that counter argument.

A former legendary striker of Australian football also looks set to buck that trend, with Damian Mori finally getting his chance.

He will take over from the outgoing Ross Aloisi, to become the assistant coach to his ex-Adelaide City championship teammate Carl Veart at Adelaide United until the end of the season.

Ross Aloisi’s departure from Adelaide United has been a long time coming. All season long he had been heavily linked with positions at Western United, Celtic and Yokohama F Marinos.

Japan is a country where Australian coaches have enjoyed great success and it will be interesting to see how his fiery and passionate personality gels with the very respectful culture of Japanese football.

Damian Mori is the complete opposite; cool, calm, calculated – just as he was in the box.

There is no debate that Mori is the greatest striker ever at Australian domestic level.

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His glittering list of personal accolades and trophies includes being a five-time NSL golden boot winner, four-time NSL champion and two-time Johnny Warren Medal winner.

He is the most prolific goal-scorer in Australian football history with 240 career goals in 446 appearances, second-highest Socceroos goal scorer and once held the world record for fastest goal ever scored.

The only thing missing from his playing career was success in Europe – due to an ill-fated spell with Borussia Dortmund in the mid-1990s.

Mori’s coaching career in the SA NPL has been extremely underrated and the fact it has taken over a decade for an A-League side to take a chance on him has been a surprise to many within the game.

Adelaide City returned to the glory days of yesteryear with Mori in charge during a nine-year spell of trophies.

But it is his work over the past 18 months on an incredibly tight budget with FK Beograd that deserves more praise than his time with City.

FK Beograd were founded over 70 years ago by the local Serbian community in Adelaide’s western suburbs and are known to produce technically gifted players. It is the junior club of current A-League players Nikola Mileusnic and Lachlan Barr.

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The club has been meandering along in South Australia’s state league since 2015, and even had former Adelaide United legends Cassio and Cristiano in youth development positions with the club.

Mori took over the head coaching role in 2020 and things immediately clicked.

They finished second in the league after losing top spot to an injury time winner to rivals Birkalla, only to get their revenge by beating the same side in the finals series and seal promotion back to the SA NPL.

Mori has reinforced his side for the rigours of the SA NPL with a raft of exciting prospects.

He has signed two of the division’s most promising young forwards – Ninko Beric and Mori’s son, Josh, while raiding other clubs for up-and-comers in Christian Sotira, Stanisa Velinov and Filimon Asefa and bringing back to South Australia Cooper Nunn from Munro College and Gideon Arok from Central Coast Mariners.

FK Beograd have been all action so far in the SA NPL, but only sit one point above the dreaded relegation zone.

It will be interesting to see the fortunes of the club with Mori simultaneously doing the assistants role at Adelaide United as well as still being the head coach of the state league side.

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Having seen how hands on Mori is with the strikers in training for FK Beograd, he should instill even more confidence in an Adelaide United side that is second in the league for shots per game and firmly entrenched in a battle for a finals spot.

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