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Steve Horvat.
Australian Socceroos centre-back Steve Horvat attended Geelong College from 1983 to 1986 and later, the Australian Institute of Sport.
He retired from club soccer in 2003 after a distinguished soccer career as a defender. He first played at the age of 18 for Sunshine and North Geelong before joining the Melbourne Knights. He then moved overseas to play with Croatian Club, Hajduk Split. After his return to Australia he played for Carlton and then rejoined the Melbourne Knights in 2001 where he eventually became Club Captain in 2003. Steve played 32 games for the Socceroos between 1994 and 2002, and most notably in the Iran World Cup match and the victory over Brazil in the Confederations Cup in 2001.
Steve Horvat was inducted into the OGCA Gallery of Notable Collegians in 2016. He was described by the OGCA:
'Steve started playing soccer in Geelong aged eight. He represented Victoria at every age group, and represented Australia as a player at U17, youth, Olympic and senior levels. In his last two years as a Socceroo, he captained Australia seven times.' From Ad Astra, December 2019:
No Ceiling On What We Can AchieveBy Mike Howell, Director of Advancement and Community RelationsYou never know who is watching - give everything you have got!
That mantra has served soccer star Steve Horvat (OGC 1988) well over the years. Despite having attended the College at a time when soccer was not played at the school, Horvat became an Australian representative and is now Director of Football of the new A-League team, Western United.
Growing up, soccer was always a part of Steve’s family rituals. His parents, who escaped from Croatia in the mid-1950s, loved soccer and his father played for the North Geelong Croatia Football Club.
Steve’s early football career saw him playing for the Victorian Under-13, U14 and U15 teams in national championships. Steve said there was a bit of luck involved when he was spotted by the Head Coach of the Australian Institute of Sport – the U16 side was short of numbers for a training session and he was asked to go up a grade. “You never know who is watching – give everything you have got,” Steve said.
He was then offered a scholarship to complete Years 11 and 12 at the Australian Institute of Sport which was a wonderful opportunity back in 1997. Six months later, he played for Australia and scored a goal in the FIFA U16 World Championships against Saudi Arabia.
Steve started his professional career at 17 years old with Melbourne Croatia (now Melbourne Knights) and then North Geelong Warriors. His next move was to return for the Melbourne Knights for two seasons, winning the Australian title and receiving the Joe Marston Medal for best player in the grand final.
His playing career took him overseas to Croatia for three years before moving to England and signing with West Ham, Crystal Palace and Fulham, but had problems with work permits and visas. When he and wife Tina were expecting their second daughter, he received an offer from the Carlton soccer club and moved back to Australia. He then re-joined the Melbourne Knights.
Steve was a regular member of the Australian national side as a Socceroo, making 32 appearances, which included playing in the 1996 Summer Olympics and the honour of captaining Australia seven times.
He and Tina have four children – Chantel, Neve, Ben and Evan. On returning from living in the UK in 2001, he had no doubt that he wanted to send his children to College. A decision made easier when seeing soccer goals on Mackie Oval, causing him to nearly crash!
Chantel (OGC 2016) followed in her father’s sporting footsteps, earning a basketball scholarship to the AIS and playing for the Australian national team. She is now based in America, playing basketball for the University of California and Los Angeles (UCLA). Neve (OGC 2017) is now studying at Swinburne University, completing a double degree in Media Communications/Design and majoring in Social Media/Photomedia, while Ben (Year 6) and Evan (Year 4) are in Middle School.
After his playing years, Steve worked in the family business, Sava Engineering, and for five years called A-League and Socceroos matches for ABC radio and television.
More recently, Steve is one of the founding fathers and Director of Football of Western United. It has been his passion to establish a club in Melbourne’s western suburbs and to develop its own privately-owned stadium in Truganina in time for the 2021-22 season.
His vision is to tap into the incredible football history of our region through the immigrant population as well as the demographic growth. Over the next 15 years, the population of Wyndham will be bigger than Adelaide.
Western United has had a dream start to the season and is second on the table after round 5, with three wins, one draw and one loss. In Steve’s words, “there is no ceiling on what we can achieve”. Sources: Ad Astra July 2016 p44, Ad Astra December 2019 p45 OGC 1988.