Dario Vidošić, told by those who know him best

The Yugoslavian-born Australia international is in charge of Brighton & Hove Albion at just 37 years of age, but that's no surprise to those he has crossed paths with during his fledgling career...

Jan 26, 2025

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Dario Vidošić took over as Brighton’s women’s team head coach last summer. Image: The FA via Getty Images

Brighton & Hove Albion currently sit fifth in the Barclays Women’s Super League, halfway through the new season, well clear of the relegation battle they once looked like getting sucked into last time around.

Despite a recent dip in form, the Seagulls still sit best of the rest behind the ‘big four’ and three points better off than their next best challenger in Tottenham Hotspur.

So many summers have promised so much for what on the face of it is an ambitious club. The men have enjoyed a rapid rise over the years, known for playing attractive football, taking risks on young, raw head coaches, while the women have generally stumbled along during their WSL days, going from head coach to head coach, and transfer windows filled with potential, but which from materialised little.

Whether it was the three-month tenure of former Bayern Munich boss Jens Scheuer or the somewhat surprise dismissal last season of Mel Phillips, Brighton just haven’t quite made it click, until now.

It should be no surprise that the club which has just broken a Premier League record in making German Fabian Hürzuler the league’s youngest ever manager, took a punt on Yugoslavian-born Australian international, Dario Vidošić, after just two years as a senior head coach with Melbourne City.

But Vidošić has wasted no time in making an impact, following up on the promise of a transfer window which saw the likes of Fran Kirby, Bruna Vilamala Jelena Čanković, Kiko Seike and Michelle Agyemang land on the south coast, and when you speak to people back home who have worked with Vidosic, they are unsurprised a man who is just 37 years old has already shown what he’s all about.

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“He wants to dominate possession, but possession with a purpose,” says Michael Petrillo, Director of Football at Melbourne City. “There’s an objective to his methodology and within the City Group style. His attention to detail is second to none, he knows his players really well, what type of player he both wants and needs.

“He picks up strengths and weaknesses very early, I think that’s one of his big positives, knowing what he’s going to get from players and how to adjust accordingly.”

Petrillo and Vidošić go way back, over a decade in fact, to when Petrillo was Head of Football at Adelaide United and Vidošić was a promising 24-year-old midfielder approaching his peak, two years on from making his senior Australia debut, an international career which would span 23 caps and the 2010 World Cup.

Even as a player, Petrillo saw the signs early on of someone who was obsessed with being a coach one day.

“He was very similar [to now]. We were both mad Barcelona fans, Johann Cruyff fans, he’s sort of followed that coaching methodology all his life.

“In Adelaide, he was already thinking about strategies, methodology, philosophies and tactics. We talked constantly about Barcelona, what Pep [Guardiola] was doing, what Cruyff had instilled in football in general.

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