Mark Viduka: From Down Under to Elland Road – An Exclusive Interview

Last week we had the great pleasure of sitting down with Leeds United legend Mark Viduka thanks to our friends at Best Online Poker Sites. Big Dukes, as he was affectionately known, started his career in Australia with the Melbourne Knights, picking up two league titles before heading over to the land of his father, Croatia, where he won a further three league titles with Dinamo Zagreb. After a move to Celtic for £3.5 million in 1998 he was voted Scottish Player of the Year after scoring twenty-seven goals in his first full season at Celtic Park. We asked him how his move to Leeds United came about and if the presence of fellow Aussie Harry Kewell at Elland Road influenced his decision.

“Ah, yeah. Well, there was a few other offers, there was a few from Spain. But at the time I wanted to play in the Premier League, I wanted to be playing against top, top opposition every week. I wanted to be in the Premier League, at the time it was one of the best leagues in the world, if not the best as it is today. I wanted to test myself out to see if I can do it at that level. And it was a big bonus that Harry was there and also a friend of mine, Danny Milosevic, was there. I knew him for quite a while beforehand and Harry I played with in the national team, so it was a good. It was a really good. Not the biggest reason, but it was a big reason why I went down to Leeds.”

Walking round Thop Arch at the time you’d be forgiven for thinking you were in Western Australia, not West Yorkshire given the number of Aussie accents that could be heard. Aside from Viduka, Kewell and Milosevic there were a group of younger Australians at the club including Jacob Burns, Shane Cansdell-Sherriff and Jamie McMaster. They didn’t make the same impact as Kewell and Viduka but Leeds became one of the first clubs in the Premier League to actually look at up and coming Australian players.

“Yeah, it was like that for some reason, probably because H was the guy, he probably started that off because he was there as a youngster coming through the ranks. Maybe they saw if somebody coming from Australia can be that good a footballer, there's there isn't a reason why others can't be like that as well. So, I think that's probably one of the main reasons. We had a lot of a few youngsters coming through the Academy at the time when I was there as well the guys that you mentioned. I think maybe that was the reason, they saw, they've done really well with Harry. He came through their system and he was at the time one of the best players in the Premier League for me. He won the young player of the Year award and so I think that were the pioneers bringing Aussies across.”

In Viduka’s first season with Leeds United, he bagged 22 goals in all competitions sparking up partnerships with Alan Smith and Robbie Keane as the club reached the semi-finals of the Champions League and finished fourth in the Premier League. But despite that success, Viduka came remarkably close to Leaving Leeds in the summer of 2001.

“After the first season in the Champions League. I had an offer from Milan to go. But to be honest, I’d just moved down from Celtic. I bought myself a house there and I was really happy. I loved going into work every day and the things were looking upwards at that at that time. We’d Just bought Rio Ferdinand as well, investing in some good players like Robbie Fowler and my decision to stay was based on thinking that we were gonna be contending for the league.”




But it wasn’t to be. Rather than pushing on for league titles, Leeds dropped to fifth in the Premier League the next season and were knocked out of the UEFA Cup by PSV Eindhoven in the fourth round. The season after Viduka’s 22 goals, including a dramatic winner in a 3-2 victory over Arsenal at Highbury helped keep relegation at bay. But even Big Dukes couldn’t stave off relegation next campaign as Leeds were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2003-2004 season. But aside from relegation what was Viduka’s biggest regret at Leeds?

“Regret? There's not many bigger regrets than relegation. Let me tell you that. I'd say regret is something that I had control over or not control over. I would say I think the sacking of David O'Leary was a big point. That was that was a turning point for us. I would say from then on it wasn't the same. Actually, after Terry Venables left, the club wasn't heading in any direction. And then then you know? The financial situation and all that. It wasn't just the players, it was people who were working at the club as well. They weren't sure when they were going to get their next pay check as well. So it just puts a big cloud of, what is it called? Instability around the club.”

Reflecting on this period of the clubs history many might say that the team underperformed. They didn’t kick on from the third place finish in the Premier League and Champions League semi-final despite the undoubted talent at the club and the fees spent on players, particularly attacking players. With the likes of Viduka, Fowler, Keane, Kewell, Smith and Bridges should Leeds United have picked up some silverware in that time?

“Should we have? That's a good question because there's another 19 teams who are thinking like that. At the time Man United were the dominant force. Then you had clubs like Chelsea, who were also investing heavily in players then you had Arsenal, who were always up there, had unbelievable players. So there was huge competition. Should we have? In football you can do everything right, but it doesn't turn out. That's the thing. So, what do we say about the Champions League, is that overperforming? Is getting to the semi-final of the Champions League over achieving is that or is that under achieving?”

“A lot of people don't realise, especially fans, they don't realise how big a competition there is out there. And I know every fan wants to be winning but there's a lot of other teams and a lot of other fans who also want to do that. I'm disappointed that it ended the way the way it did because, I would never expect that after getting to the semi-final of the Champions League that three years later that we would be relegated. But it just goes to show you've got teams who are who are who are putting ridiculous amounts of money into their team, into their squads. Like PSG, for example. Nothing's guaranteed, even if you put in a lot of money.”





Perhaps Viduka’s most famous moment at Leeds was when he scored all four goals in the enthralling 4-3 victory over Liverpool. The first of his goals was a clever dink after Smith charged down a Christian Ziege clearance, the second was a thumping header from a pinpoint Gary cross and he completed his hat-trick when, after buying himself half a yard, he unleashed a smart finish across goal and in off the post. Just two minutes later the roof came off when he bagged the best of his four showing an instinctive touch to capitalise on a miscued to delicately chip the ball over the rapidly advancing Sander Westerveld. How much better can it get than that?

“Oof. Scoring 4 against Liverpool at Elland Road. That was a huge highlight. I don't know if you can as an individual beat that sort of a performance. I don't think you can get much better than that. Very difficult. The thing is, it's hard to generalise. You know, there's so many moments. And every moment is very important to you. I had moments. I won three leagues when I was in in Croatia for Dinamo. I won a league down in Australia. I was voted Player of the Year in Scotland, which for me was a huge thing. It is a big highlight because it was something extraordinary. Every single thing is special. It's like saying which kid do you like? If you got three kids, which one do you like the best?”

After relegation in 2004, Leeds finally managed to return to the Premier League under Marcelo Bielsa in 2020. It’s fair to say the league changed a lot since Viduka’s era and the £6 million spent to bring him to the club along with the £18 million spent on Rio Ferdinand are peanuts compared to the amounts oil rich clubs like Manchester City splash about these days. A tricky second and third season back saw Leeds relegated again but this time they have the chance to bounce back at the first time of asking and Viduka passed on a message to the fans and players.

“Just you know, I hope to God that they just get through. That's my message. Hopefully all the all the fans will be out there and getting behind the team and we can get through that last hurdle. Because they deserve it. The boys deserve it. For this year. I think that they deserve to get through.”