Brisbane Roar is today delighted to announce Michael Valkanis as the new Head Coach of the club’s Isuzu UTE A-League Men’s team.
Valkanis will also be joined by Borja Lema in the role of Assistant Coach and Grijia Nektarios in the role of Head Analyst, who both come to the club with a wealth of experience across European football, having both worked with Valkanis in the past.
The Australian returns home to the competition to take over the reins of the team, after spending more than seven years in Europe, where he gained invaluable experience at both a domestic and international level.
Valkanis’ 15-year professional coaching career, which began 2010, has seen him work across the A-Leagues with both Adelaide United and Melbourne City in both Assistant and Head Coach roles prior to departing for Europe in 2018.
Here, across a span of seven years, Valkanis worked in an Assistant Head Coach capacity for PEC Zwolle (Dutch 1st Division), Greece Men’s National Team and Eupen (Belgian 1st Division), before becoming Head Coach of Eupen for the remainder of the season.
In 2023, Valkanis became Head Coach of Israeli footballing giants, Hapoel Tel Aviv F.C before European giants, Ajax (Dutch 1st Division) recruited him to become Assistant Head Coach of their Men’s team, working under former Melbourne City Head Coach, John Van’t Schip.
Finally, Valkanis then became Head Coach of Adana Demispor (Turkish 1st Division) in 2024, before returning to Australia to join Brisbane Roar.
Speaking on the arrival of Valkanis, Brisbane Roar CEO, Kaz Patafta said:
“Our search for a new Head Coach here at Brisbane Roar took place both here and abroad, and we are excited to be able to welcome Michael and a number of his team to our football club as the new Men’s Head Coach.
“Michael’s stature and experience in both Australian and European football speaks for itself. He comes to our football club with a clear vision to elevate our Men’s team and return them to where they belong – challenging for silverware each and every season.
“We join our loyal fans in welcoming Michael to the football club and look forward to seeing him get to work.”
Valkanis and his team have commenced their roles as of today and we wish them all the best ahead of the club’s Australia Cup playoff match in Darwin next week.
