With the 2026/27 A-Leagues campaign fast approaching, aleagues.com.au caught up with Brisbane Roar defender Tom Aldred, after the former club captain sealed an emotional return to the club this off-season.
Professional football is such a relentless and cut-throat industry and loyalty, both on the player and the club’s side of things is, relatively speaking, hard to come by.
Realistically, the idea of ‘going back’ is never really an option, both for club and player. Regardless of how things were left, both parties have usually moved on once the player leaves the club.
There are, of course, some exceptions. The main one being the player is a product of the academy. Another exception, and it’s certainly nowhere near as common, is that the player left such a mark and forged such a bond with the supporters during their first spell at the club, that the idea of ‘coming home’ just works.
In this instance, Tom Aldred is that rare, second example.
“I can’t really believe it. I keep having to like (pinch myself),” Aldred said, when speaking to aleagues.com.au’s Senior Reporter, James Dodd.
“To go and come back, like it’s never happened to me in my career before, but I’m very honoured to be back here. I feel very fortunate in a way that I’ve been able to go away and then come back having had the experience I’ve had.
“I love Australia as a country. I love the place. Brisbane became a home to me with my family, my son was born in Queensland. I always wanted to get my Australian citizenship.
“I think to come back here as a player is, yeah, to be honest with you, I still can’t really believe it. It seems mad.”
Arriving in Australia in June 2019 following stints in both England and Scotland, Aldred quickly established himself as one of the A-Leagues’ most dominant central defenders.
Named captain at the start of his first season, the now 35-year-old displayed qualities that saw him quickly become a fan favourite at the Roar, becoming just the sixth skipper in their history and the first foreigner to wear the armband.
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All of which then made it harder for the club’s fanbase to deal with his departure at the end of the 2023/24 campaign, after Aldred announced he’d be joining Indian Super League side Mohun Bagan.
“It has been a privilege and honour to lead this great club. It has been the most incredible journey of my life,” said Aldred in his goodbye address to the fans.
Two years later though, the commanding central defender is back and quickly readjusting to life with his former club having just touched down in Indonesia ahead of two matches with local sides Dewa United and sister club, Persija Jakarta, which form part of the Roar’s pre-season schedule.
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“In football, transfer markets can be crazy at times, especially when you’re talking about moving to different countries, not just different clubs,” Aldred said, when talking from the team hotel in Pabuaran, Indonesia.
“I’d done my two years at Mohun Bagan and I felt like in those two years, I’d achieved everything I wanted to achieve. It was a very successful two years.
“I always said I wanted to go and sample Asia and have that experience. So to then go out and do that and achieve it was great.
“But in terms of coming back, it kind of happened really, really quickly. It was a conversation with the club, one thing to another, and yeah, it just happened.
“But to be honest with you, as soon as the idea had come up, it was a no-brainer. I’m so glad it did because it just almost feels like I’m back home.
“It was always going to be Brisbane over any other A-League club.”
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Aldred returns to a Roar side, and indeed club, that’s vastly different from the one he left in 2024, with Michael Valkanis’ side looking to bounce back after a disappointing 11th-placed finish last season.
TRANSFER CENTRE: Isuzu UTE A-League 2026-27 Transfer Centre: Your club’s moves
“I think we’ve obviously gone through a big transition since I’ve been away in the last two years,” Aldred said.
“But the opportunity to be a part of that was something that was a massive pull for me.
“I think the club now are going in a direction where they’ve made a lot of positive changes in regards to training facilities, players coming in the door, and where they want to take it.
“There’s a lot of good young, hungry players here who want to go and have careers, and I feel that I can be a part of that and help them.”
Aldred is one of nine new arrivals in Queensland this off-season, joining the likes of German attacker Marko Ilic, Socceroos full back Joel King, South Korean creator Nam Tae-hee and Moldovan international Virgiliu Postolachi, while defender Dimitri Valkanis has turned last season’s loan move into a permanent transfer.
However there has been plenty of turnover from last season’s squad, with Head Coach Michael Valkanis opting to move on several first team players during the off-season including club captain Jay O’Shea, meaning there’s a dearth of experience and leadership at the club.
“When I spoke to the manager, he told me what he expected from me and wanted from me, what he’d heard about me in my time here at Brisbane,” Aldred said, when asked what his role in the squad would be this coming campaign.
“He mentioned obviously that we have a young squad that is in need of leaders. I was obviously a leader in my time, but I feel like I’ve become a stronger leader as a person, having been away in those two years.
“I want to impact the group. I want to help players to go and have careers that we’ve already seen players at Brisbane now go on to do.
“So he just marked out his expectations, and it aligned with where I see my career at this stage. His words were ‘he wanted to bring me home’ – so that was enough for me to want to come back.”
In a special touch, Aldred has also been allocated his favourite number five shirt for the 2026/27 A-Leagues campaign as the Roar look to roar back into life.
But whilst he’s got his favourite shirt number and is back at the club he calls home, make no mistake about it: Aldred isn’t getting too romantic about his homecoming. There’s a job to do.
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“I think all footballers will admit you never really have time to reflect,” he said.
“You’ve got games to prepare for and you never really have time to sit and to think.
“But having been back here now, and obviously seeing the transition the club’s been through, I do see it as a mark of respect to what I did in my time here. It’s a very good feeling and honour to be back.
“But look, I’ve come to do a job. I don’t want to romanticise the fact that I’m back. It’s important now that the past is the past. We move on and I’m ready for the upcoming season.
“I think that’s been a quality of mine, and in football in general, is that football moves on and it continues to move on. You never have time to reflect.
“You’ve always got to move on to the next game, the next season, the next moment. It’s important that you never stand still.
“I think when my career eventually does come to an end in 10 years’ time,” he says, cracking a wry smile, “I’ll be able to sit and have those reflection moments.
“I’m thankful to be back. I’m very honoured and respectful of the club for bringing me back.
“But now it’s a case of moving on and impacting the group in a way that we can win some football matches and compete in the top six of the league, which is what I’m here to do and what I want to do.”
Brisbane Roar will kick off their 2026/27 campaign against Adelaide United at Coopers Stadium on Sunday, October 18.
