Perth Glory have appointed WA football legend Stan Lazaridis as the club’s Director of Football in the first major coup of chairman Ross Pelligra’s ownership.
Lazaridis, capped 60 times by the Socceroos, accrued more than 250 appearances at West Ham United and Birmingham City in a 17-year playing career which included two seasons at Glory before his retirement in 2008.
Rejoining the club as Director of Football, Lazaridis revealed the motivating factors behind his return included strengthening the playing group, improving the club’s financial position and encouraging more fans back through the gates at HBF Park.
“For me personally, there’s unfinished business at the club,” Lazaridis said in a club statement.
“I feel that when I left, I needed to give something back and this is just the right time to do that.
“My motive for coming back is simply that I want this club to be better. I want us to achieve things again, to be competitive, for fans to come back through the turnstiles and The Shed to be electric again.
“I’m going to work my damnedest to make this club great again and the board have given me full trust. I think when that trust is given to someone, you want to protect it and work even harder.
“I want the books to balance, but I also want a competitive side. I want the coaches to be happy and then there’s the club aspect as well.
“Top of my priority list at the moment is looking at the playing squad because we’re actually quite thin on the player roster. I’ll be looking at how we can strengthen for next season, looking at players whose contracts are running out, speaking to them individually and seeing where their minds are at in terms of whether they want to still be here or whether they want to move on.
“We’ve got such a great owner who’s very humble, very financial, but also wants success and he’s given us his ideas of what he wants. It’s going to be a big team effort, we’ve got some wonderful staff here and I just can’t wait to get stuck into it.”
Lazaridis featured 13 times for Perth between 2006 and 2008 in the final two years of his playing career.
A member of Australia’s iconic 2006 World Cup squad, Lazaridis debuted for Australia in 1993 and went on to make 60 Socceroos appearances – the most by any Western Australian in history.
Lazaridis went to the 2006 World Cup as part of a Socceroos squad featuring Vince Grella and Mark Bresciano – two fellow Australian football greats who Glory owner Pelligra says were instrumental in bringing Lazaridis back to the club.
“Stan was introduced to myself about two months ago, but I already knew of him through the relationship he had with Vince Grella and Mark Bresciano,” Pelligra said.
“Then I started doing some research to see what Stan had done in the past and noticed that he was a big leader in football and had also helped Vince and Mark through their careers.
“I could see that he had that leadership in him and as I got to know him more, I realised that we need a person like Stan in our club; someone who understands football, knows football, has lived football and can help the next generation of kids come through.”
