Mark Viduka is a professional football player, who was born on October 9, 1975 in Melbourne, Australia. He has a number of nicknames like V-Bomber, Dukes, The Duke and The Dukes of Hazzard. He is married to Ivana and they have three sons, Joseph, Lucas and Oliver.
Being a talented centre forward, Mark Viduka has scored 32 goals in 24 games for the Australia national football Under-20 level during 1993 and 1995. Between 1994 and 1996, he made 17 goals in 18 appearances for his country’s Under-23 side.
Since 1994, Mark Viduka has been with the senior side of the Australian national team. In September 2005, he was made the captain of the nation team after Craig Moore, the then Australian captain. With Mark Viduka in the team, Australia played brilliantly to win the penalty shootout 4-2 against Uruguay in the 2006 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup and qualified his team for the first time since the 1974 tournament. Under his captaincy, Australia won its first round in the World Cup in June 2006 after defeating Japan 3-1. He scored 2 remarkable headers and helped the team win 3-0 against Singapore in a friendly match, a week before the start of the 2007 Asian Cup tournament. Mark Viduka captained the national team and scored one goal against Iraq and 2 goals against Thailand in the 2007 Asian Cup matches. As of 2008, he has earned 43 international caps as a first team member of the Australia national football team and has 11 goals to his credit.
Having started his club career with the Melbourne Knights club in 1993, Mark Viduka went on to make 40 goals in 49 matches for the team. He then moved to the Dinamo Zagreb, a Croatian club, and he helped the team win 3 doubles between 1996 and 1998. With Mark Viduka in the team, the club made it to the third round of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in 1997.
Mark Viduka made his first appearance for the Scottish football club, Celtic Park, on February 16, 1999 against Motherwell. After netting 27 goals in his first full season for the Celtic Park club, he was voted ‘Scottish Player of the Year’ for the 1999-2000 season.
On moving to the Leeds United club before the 2000-01 season, Mark Viduka spent five years and played 130 matches for the team, scoring a good 59 goals. As the club had financial difficulties, he was sold to the Middlesbrough club for the 2005-06 season. During his tenure at the club, he made 26 goals in 72 games before moving to the Newcastle United FC in 2007.
For his commendable performances for two consecutive seasons, Mark Viduka received the ‘Johnny Warren Medal for National Soccer League (NSL) Player of the Year’ in 1993-94 and 1994-95.
Alistair Griffin, an ardent Middlesbrough fan and English singer/songwriter, has written a song on Mark Viduka. For his service towards the sport of football, the Knight’s Stadium, which is the home of the Melbourne Knights, has been renamed the ‘Mark Viduka Stand’.
Mark Viduka enjoys watching Australian rules football, which is a team sport played with a prolate spheroid shaped ball. He also supports the Collingwood Football Club, an Australian rule football club playing in the Australian Football League.
