Melbourne Victory is pleased to announce the appointment of former Victory Medallist and Club legend Rodrigo Vargas as the Club’s National Premier Leagues Victoria Under 21 Head Coach.
Vargas returns to the Club where he made 139 Isuzu UTE A-League appearances – winning Premiership and Championship honours – to lead the next generation of Melbourne Victory Academy players under the guidance of Joe Palatsides.
Melbourne Victory Director of Football, John Didulica, said he was thrilled to welcome Vargas back to the Club in a coaching capacity.
“Rodi understands this Club as well as anyone in its history and we need people with that institutional knowledge having an ongoing and meaningful connection with the Club. This is what helped build Melbourne Victory into the success story it has been over the journey, and will be moving forward,” Didulica said.
“In addition to Rodi’s deep football knowledge and understanding of what Victory means to so many people, he is a wonderful person that is widely admired across professional football in Australia. These are the sort of people we want teaching and influencing our next generation of young men.”
Vargas said he was also looking forward to the challenge of rearing the next generation of Melbourne Victory players.
“Melbourne Victory has been a huge part of my personal and professional life and to be back here coaching in the Academy is really exciting,” Vargas said.
“I’ll be working alongside Tony Popovic and Joe Palatsides in the Academy to achieve our aim in getting the next generation ready to take their next step into senior football.
“The Club has such a rich history and now it’s about building on that and unearthing the talent that will be part of our future A-League squad.”
Melbourne Victory can also announce its core Academy coaching structure for the 2022 NPL Victoria season as follows:
NPL Victoria Seniors: Head Coach Joe Palatsides and Assistant Coach Agim Sherifovski
NPL Victoria Under 20’s: Head Coach Rodrigo Vargas and Assistant Coach Piotr Rutkowski
NPL Victoria Under 18’s: Head Coach Andreas Papanicolaou and Assistant Coach Jared Svaljek
NPL Victoria Under 16’s: Head Coach Joaquin Griffiths Moreno and Assistant Coach Tom Milicevic
NPL Victoria Under 15’s: Head Coach Matthew Sultana and Assistant Coach Tom Paton
NPL Victoria Under 14’s: Head Coach Robbie Wielaert and Assistant Coach Tom Huang
Academy Goalkeeper Coach: Sebastian Bechaud and Assistant Mark Spiteri
