BIOGRAPHY

John Warren MBE OAM (known as Johnny Warren) (17 May 1943 in Sydney, Australia – 6 November 2004 in Sydney) was an association football (soccer) player, coach, administrator, writer, promoter and legend of the game in Australia. He is a member of the Football Federation Australia - Football Hall of Fame. The Johnny Warren Medal, awarded to the best player in the A-League for the regular season.

Warren grew up in the southern Sydney suburb of Botany. He was a junior at Botany Methodists, and received his first taste of representative football when selected for the Protestant Churches state team at age 10.
Following a year at Earlwood Wanderers, Warren joined the Canterbury third grade senior team in 1959, aged 15. Later that year he was promoted to the NSW state league club’s first grade team, and by 1960 he had established himself in an attacking midfield position as one of the team’s key players. The 17 year old scored twice in a 3-2 preliminary final win over Apia Leichhardt to earn Canterbury a place in the 1960 NSW grand final. In 1963 he moved to St George Budapest, the start of a 12 year playing stint, although he had a brief stint with English club Stockport County in 1964.Over these 12 seasons, St George featured in six NSW state league grand finals (winning three), finished as premiers once and as premiership runners up seven times, and won two state league (Ampol) cups. He could not have ended his playing career at St George more fittingly as he scored the sealing goal in St George’s 4-2 NSW grand final victory over Sydney City Hakoah in 1974, the goal scored after Warren stole the ball in his own defensive half and ran through, evading two defenders, before beautifully curling ball around the advancing Hakoah goalkeeper.

Warren's senior representative career in the Australian team, known as the Socceroos, commenced in 1965 when he played in a 0-0 draw with Cambodia in November 1965. By 1967 he was the captain of the national team, and he played a starring role in Australia’s victory in the 1967 Vietnam National Day tournament, Australia’s first international trophy, won in a war ravaged Saigon.

In 1969 he led the Aussies on a gruelling World Cup campaign, where Australia took on Japan, South Korea, Zimbabwe and Israel in an exhaustingly hectic qualifying series, losing out on qualifying for the 1970 World Cup at the last hurdle.

Warren was a key member of the first Australian team to qualify for the World Cup finals. The Socceroos competed at the 1974 World Cup in Group A with West Germany, East Germany and Chile. Warren played in the 2-0 loss to East Germany, where he suffered a foot injury which ruled him out of Australia’s two remaining World Cup games. Australia's sole point came from a 0-0 draw with Chile.
After playing 62 internationals for Australia, Warren retired from the national team.

Warren's publicly held belief was that if Australia's strong sporting tradition was focused on the sport then Australia could be a world power in the game. One of his famous quotes on the matter was "I'm sick of us saying, 'When are we going to qualify for the World Cup'? When are we going to win the World Cup? ... Call me a dreamer."[1] His comments came shortly after Australia had defeated England 3-1 in a friendly featuring a full-strength English side (albeit with 11 substitutions made at half-time), and several Confederations Cup wins over France and Brazil when Australia took third place at the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup in a 1-0 playoff win over Brazil.

Warren wept openly on national television in 1997 when two very late goals by Iran resulted in a 2-2 draw against the Socceroos in the final World Cup qualifying match and sent Iran to the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

In 2002, Warren published a best selling book, Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters, An Incomplete Biography of Johnny Warren & Soccer In Australia which traced the growth of football(soccer) in Australia, especially in the post-WWII years. The title refers to alleged sexist and racist attitudes towards football exhibited frequently by many Australians and especially the major city media in Australia through this period.

His last public appearance was made during the launch of the new Australian domestic football league, branded the A-League (not to be confused with the American league that previously had the same name), which replaced the previous National Soccer League.

Weeks before death, Warren was asked what he wanted his sporting legacy to be - his answer "I Told You So", a phrase which has become a catch-cry in Australian football and during the 2006 FIFA World Cup appeared on the scoreboard in the backdrop of the SBS World Cup studio.