Growing up in Brisbane with a big time difference to London, Dario Vidosic loved being allowed to stay up past his bedtime to watch a big Wembley final on television next to his father, Rado, before trying to recreate a great goal with him in the garden the following day.
On Sunday, Rado will not only be in the Vidosic family’s thoughts but in the hearts and minds of everyone associated with Brighton as the team walk out at Wembley for the Women’s FA Cup final against Manchester City to try to win their first major trophy, four months after Rado – who was working as the women’s team’s head of coaching – died from cancer.
“He’s always in my thoughts,” Dario, the Brighton head coach, says of his father. “I know he’s always been there for me, from when I was a very small child. He’d be working all day, but he’d always make effort to play with me, to be in the back garden and take me out and kick the ball around and just help me, and it was the same as a coach.
“It was very sad to see what he went through [with cancer]. But even through that, he still taught me some valuable lessons. When something feels like it’s going to defeat you, he still never gave up until the very, very last moment. He was still fighting it, still trying to get up, still trying to move, not letting it beat him. Even in his final moments, he still taught me so much. He showed me a strength that I didn’t know was possible.
“I’ll take that with me, not just to Wembley, but in every moment in life. Whenever it feels like it might be a bit tough, I know I haven’t gone through anything that I can say has been ‘tough’. So, irrespective of what happens [on Sunday], it’s a day that I’m sure he’ll be proud watching the girls and watching the game unfold, I know he’ll be there with us and hopefully we can give him something to celebrate.”
Brighton appeared to channel some of that never-give-in attitude during their semi-final when they recovered from two goals down at Liverpool to win 3-2 thanks to a roaring second-half comeback and a 95th-minute winner from the substitute Nadine Noordam. It sent them to their first major women’s final and felt like third time lucky, coming in Brighton’s third semi-final in six years.
Vidosic has frequently spoken about wanting to win trophies for Brighton and they will go to Wembley with real intent against a side they beat when they most recently met in the Women’s Super League in April. Brighton won their FA Cup quarter-final at Arsenal, further showcasing their potential to cause an upset.
“It is a fantastic achievement,” Vidosic says of reaching the final. “And [because of] the teams that we had to beat to get to the final, I think that has to be celebrated, but only the winner is remembered, so it is an opportunity for us, and I want to be the part of the history, to be the first [Brighton] team to bring a trophy back. It’s most important to enjoy it, not to feel any stress about it. And it’s normal to have those nerves that matchday will certainly bring.”
The 39-year-old former Australia midfielder’s wife and children will be at the match. The Vidosic family has known many coaching triumphs, with Rado leading Melbourne City’s women’s side to an A-League double in 2020 during an extensive career coaching in Australia, which also included securing trophies as Ange Postecoglou’s assistant at Brisbane Roar 15 years ago. Dario played under the former Celtic and Tottenham coach for Australia and, when appointed by Brighton in 2024, thanked Postecoglou for providing a reference that helped convince the club to hire him.
Brighton’s strong backing for women’s football was an attraction for Vidosic and was exemplified last month by the publication of the club’s plans for a purpose-built women’s team stadium on land adjacent to the Amex Stadium, designed to suit WSL fans and female athletes. It is due to cost about £80m and to have an initial capacity of 10,000.
“It was a very nice moment,” Vidosic says. “It’s something for our younger players, in the academy and for girls aspiring to be professional footballers, and it just really shows them what is possible. It now fills their dreams, that they see that stadium that they can play in. The younger ones in particular, when they go in the garden or when they’re playing football at their school, they can have these scenarios in their mind, scoring potentially the winner in their new stadium. It’s very exciting and I’m very happy to be part of a club that’s really pushing the women’s game and taking it to new levels.”
Last year Vidosic told the Guardian he wanted his team “to be the best of the best” and the club’s vision aligns with his aims. A victory at Wembley would be the next key step towards realising those ambitions, and perhaps somewhere in Brisbane there will be young parent-and-child duos sitting on the sofas watching and imagining following in Vidosic’s footsteps.
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