Perth Glory is delighted to confirm that Richard Garcia has been appointed as the club’s new Head Coach for the next two seasons.
A former Glory skipper and Socceroo, Garcia has worked as an Assistant First Team Coach and Head Youth Coach of the PGFC Academy since hanging up his boots in 2017.
The 39-year-old enjoyed an illustrious playing career, during which he represented Hull City in the English Premier League, featured for the Socceroos at the 2010 World Cup, won 18 senior international caps and made over 50 Hyundai A-League appearances for Glory.
Now set to take charge of his hometown club, Garcia is hugely excited by the challenge ahead.
“I’m extremely happy to have been given this opportunity,” he said.
“Being a proud WA boy and having played for and captained Perth Glory, it’s a great honour to now be in a position to take the club forward.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our loyal Members and fans for their ongoing support during what has been a very testing year due to the issues caused by COVID-19 and I hope we will have them back at HBF Park roaring us on in the near future.”
Glory Owner and Chairman Tony Sage, meanwhile, believes that Garcia has all the qualities required to lead the club to further success.
“Richard is an outstanding young West Australian coach who has a deep understanding of our football club and what it represents within the WA football community,” he said.
“He served Perth Glory with distinction as a player and I know he will do likewise as Head Coach.
“Through his outstanding work as PGFC Academy Head Coach he has acquired an in-depth knowledge of the talented young WA players we have within our system and I look forward to seeing those players continue their development into the senior ranks under Richard’s guidance.
“Richard has learned his trade working under and alongside a host of top-quality coaches both in Australia and overseas and has all the qualities required to develop a team and a style of play that makes us all proud.
“This is an appointment that our Members and fans can feel really genuinely excited about.”
The make-up of Garcia’s coaching support staff will be confirmed shortly.
Richard Garcia Fact File
Having impressed as a junior at Olympic Kingsway, Garcia joined the famed West Ham United Academy in the UK at the age of 15 and went on to spend seven years with the London club.
During that time, the attacking midfielder was a part of the side that won the FA Youth Cup and FA Premier Youth League double and would go on to make 16 first-team appearances before completing a switch to Colchester United in 2004.
Over the next three seasons, he made more than 80 appearances, scoring 16 goals in the process and helped the U’s secure promotion to the Championship for the first time in the club’s history.
In 2007, he moved on to Hull City where he enjoyed further success in the form of promotion to the Premier League and he opened his top-flight account against Blackburn in his second appearance of the 2008-09 season.
It was during his time with the Tigers that Garcia broke into the Socceroos side having earlier represented his country at Under-23 level and the highlight of his 18-cap international career came in 2010 when he represented the Socceroos at the World Cup in South Africa.
Despite suffering two serious injuries while at Hull City, Garcia played 114 games for the club ahead of returning to Australia in 2012 when he put pen to paper with Melbourne Heart.
A season later he moved on to Sydney FC and following one campaign with the Sky Blues, he finally returned to his home city to join Glory.
After debuting in October 2014, Garcia was a regular for two seasons, taking over the captain’s armband from Michael Thwaite for the second of those campaigns.
Following a third season disrupted by injury, he ended his playing career and transitioned swiftly into coaching, eventually taking up the role as Head Coach of the PGFC Academy in 2018.
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