Mark Viduka

NSL Career: Melbourne Croatia/Knights 49 (40) / 1992/93 - 1994/95

Socceroos Career: 43 (11) A Internationals / 2 (0) B Internationals

The "V-Bomber" was the NSL's "prodigal son", that is, he was already in a class of his own as a teenager. Despite the number of prolific goal scorers that graced the NSL and later the A-League, Viduka still maintains the all-time national league record in goals-per-game ratio for players who have scored at least 20 national league goals (0.816 goals-per-game).

Such as NSL legends Ange Postecoglou and Paul Okon, Viduka's dream as a kid was simply to play for the club he grew up supporting as he came up through Melbourne Croatia's youth ranks. Viduka had been training at the prestigious AIS Soccer Program before realising his dream when he came on as a substitute in Croatia's two-nil win over West Adelaide at just 17 years of age and scored a brace in his first start against rivals Preston. 

Already developed physically as a teenager, Viduka used his strength to hold off the best centre backs in the league and utilised his incredible technique to score from any situation. Viduka took the NSL by storm as an 18 year old during the 1993/94 season - winning every individual award on offer and starting in Knight's (formerly Croatia) losing grand final to Adelaide City.

Viduka's 1994/95 season would go down as one of the greatest individual seasons in NSL history: scoring a brace in Knight's NSL Cup Final victory over Heidelberg, scoring 18 goals in 22 games to claim back-to-back NSL Golden Boot awards, winning back-to-back Johnny Warren and Sam Papasavas Medals (NSL U-21 Player of the Year) and scored a hat-trick in the NSL Preliminary Final on his way to helping Knights get revenge on Adelaide City in the grand final.

In 1995, Croatian president Franjo Tudjman was in Australia on a state visit and saw potential in Viduka to represent Croatia at international level. Viduka would respectfully decline, but the relationship with Tudjman would provide the pathway to Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian First Football League where Viduka began his European odyssey. 

A prolific goal scorer in Croatia, Scotland and England - Viduka played in European competitions for four different clubs and in testament to his talent, Italian giants AC Milan offered Leeds a £38M transfer fee in 2001 for the Australian striker, which was incredibly turned down. Viduka's feats as a teenager were such that he was selected in Melbourne Knight's Team of the Century and was selected as centre-forward in FFA's Socceroos Team of the 1990s.