After captaining Melbourne City to the club’s second Isuzu UTE A-League Championship, an emotional Aziz Behich explained why his unique journey to his maiden title made his crowning moment even sweeter.
Aziz Behich waited 15 years for this moment to arrive.
From his debut for Melbourne Heart in 2010, to his return to a club transformed into Melbourne City in 2023, his intention has always been the same: to bring silverware to the club.
Behich was just a teenager when he first arrived at the Heart, originally on a short-term injury replacement contract.
Cut by Melbourne Victory following a Grand Final appearance in his debut Isuzu UTE A-League season, Behich dropped back into the National Premier League before receiving another opportunity in the A-Leagues with Victory’s crosstown rivals.
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In the nine years between his final game for Heart in 2014, and his return to City in 2023, Behich became a Socceroos mainstay while playing for clubs in Türkiye, the Netherlands and Scotland.
On Saturday night, he completed his ultimate goal, lifting the Isuzu UTE A-League Championship trophy at the club he says “threw him a lifeline” just when he thought his professional playing career might’ve been over, after that first season at Victory.
Behich joined Network 10 in the minutes preceding his trophy lift. Visibly emotional, he could hardly put his words together as he attempted to sum up what had just happened at AAMI Park.
“Unreal. I don’t have words other than to thank this group of players and staff, and the club,” Behich said.
“We’ve worked hard for a long time. It hasn’t sunk in just yet, but it feels great, that’s for sure.
“I’ve said it many times: this club means so much to me. They threw me a lifeline when I was pretty much dead and buried (in) professional football. When I came back last year, the only goal I had was to bring a trophy to this football club.
“I can’t thank this group of players and staff enough. It’s been a team effort, that’s for sure.
“Oh, this one feels so good.”
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Saturday night’s 1-0 win over Victory was a full circle moment for Behich, whose career began at the club he played a key role in vanquishing in the first-ever Melbourne Derby Grand Final.
It was Behich’s silky backheeled pass to Andreas Kuen that led to City scoring the only goal of the Grand Final.
Kuen’s cutback cross to Max Caputo led to a shot that rattled the crossbar. Yonatan Cohen pounced on the rebound to fire City into a 1-0 lead – a lead held from the 10-minute mark to the final whistle.
In one moment of class, Behich produced a highlight that will be replayed again and again by City fans as they re-live the night they defeated Victory to claim their second Championship crown.
It will go a long way to helping Behich banish the memory of the one moment that defined his first Grand Final at Victory: a miss from inside the six-yard box in the dying moments of the 90 minutes that would have won his side the 2010 Championship.
Instead, it was Sydney FC who prevailed in a penalty shootout. It proved to be Behich’s fifth and final game for the club.
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Victory legend Archie Thompson shared the pitch with Behich in that Grand Final defeat, and remembers the moment clearly.
Joining Network 10’s post-game show following Behich’s heroics in the 2025 title decider, Thompson used the memory of that sliding doors moment in both Behich’s Victory career and in the 2010 Grand Final itself, to highlight his inspirational road to becoming an Isuzu UTE A-League Champion, at long last, with City – the club he now captains.
“I was there in that Grand Final that we played in Melbourne Victory,” Thompson said.
“He had an opportunity to score. And you know what? He doesn’t get a club after, and then Melbourne Heart comes along.
“I think that just shows you, because he didn’t have a club and he got that (chance), so he was so grateful. And every opportunity he got, I think he’s taken it because he knows how quickly football can turn. He’s just been immense.”
Behich is one of City’s five Socceroos who contributed on the night to securing the club’s second Championship crown.
One of his international and club teammates, Mathew Leckie, won the Joe Marston Medal as the best player afield in the 1-0 win over Victory. Leckie was eager to ensure Behich’s contribution, not just to the Grand Final win, but to the club’s season as a whole, did not go without recognition.
“I think (for) most Australian players who make it overseas and have a good career over there, it’s the mentality… Aziz has shown with the career he’s had,” Leckie told Network 10.
“Fighting for the team, doing the one percenters, all the things to coach trusts and wants a player to do – and then the other things come with it. That’s Aziz.
“He always sets the standard, never takes shortcuts and being the leaders, us older boys as leaders, the young boys see that and they have to follow, otherwise they get left behind.”
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