Alan Davidson

Davidson made his senior debut in the Victorian State League in 1976 at the age of 15 playing for Altona City SC which had been his junior club. He transferred to South Melbourne in 1978, where he played until the end of the 1984 season, making 155 appearances and scoring 13 goals. He moved to England for the 1984–85 season for Nottingham Forest F.C. and a promising start where he broke into the first team as a right-back was curtailed by illness after suffering a blow to the head and having a seizure during a reserve game on a very cold night which side lined him till the end of the season. He resumed training and played for the first team before suffering a serious back injury which sidelined him for over a year, forcing him into early retirement at the age of 25. He returned home to Melbourne. He resumed playing in Australia at the end of 1986 for South Melbourne and in 1987 transferred to Melbourne Croatia, making 133 appearances and scoring 10 goals from 1987 to the end of the 1991–92 season and transferred to M-League club Pahang FA in Malaysia during 1992 where he was voted the League's best player, guiding the team to the M-League Championship and Malaysia Cup double. He was the only foreign player ever to be honored and received an AMP awarded by the Sultan of Pahang in 1996. During 1989 Davidson led the Australia National Futsal Team to the first ever FIFA Futsal World Cup in the Netherlands where he played in all three round one games against Zimbabwe, Italy and…

His first Australian representative honours were in 1978–79 during the Under 19 World Youth Cup, qualifiers in New Zealand and Paraguay and made 10 youth appearances. Davidson made his senior debut for Australia on 9 February 1980 at the age of 19 against Czechoslovakia in Melbourne drawing the game 2–2. Davidson retired as Socceroos #32 official Socceroo Captain and Socceroo Cap No-292 after 79 international caps (51 in official FIFA matches) between 1980 and 1991 with the Australia team, scoring 2 goals in those appearances.

Davidson was born in Altona North, a suburb of Melbourne, in 1960 to Keith, an Australian, and Kazuko, who was born in Japan. His parents had met when his father was posted to Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. His son Jason is also a professional football player, currently playing for the for Melbourne Victory and the Socceroos.

South Melbourne

NSL Championship: 1984 NSL Cup: 1995–96 Hellenic Cup: 1984 Nottingham Forest

Saudi Arabia Cup: Winners 1984 Melbourne Knights

NSL Championship Runners Up: 1990–91, 1991–92 Ansett Challenge Shield: 1987 Buffalo Cup: 1987 Pahang FA

Malaysia Premier League: 1992, 1995 Malaysia Cup: 1992: Runners Up 1994, 1995 Malaysia Charity Shield: 1992, 1993 Runners Up 1995 Malaysia FA Cup: Runners Up 1995 Collingwood Warriors

NSL Cup: 1996–97 Australia

OFC Nations Cup: 1980 Trans-Tasman Cup: Winners 1988, Runners Up 1983, 1987 Merlion Cup: Winners 1982, 1983 President's Cup South Korea: Runners Up 1987 Bicentennial Gold Cup 1988 Runners up

Individual

Alan Davidson – Field 18 (Albert Park Lake) – 1996 Ahli Mahkota Pahang Pahang: – 1996 South Melbourne FC Team of the Century – 2000 FFA Hall of Champions Inductee – 2001 South Melbourne FC Hall of Champions: Inductee – 2002 Greatest Ever Socceroos XI Team – 2012 Football Federation Victoria Hall of Fame – 2013 Football Federation Australia Team of the Decade 1980–89 – 2013 Football Federation Victoria Life Member – 2014