Sydney FC Head Coach Ufuk Talay has signed a one-year contract extension keeping him at the helm for the Isuzu UTE A-League 2025/26 season.
Talay, who took charge of the Sky Blues in late 2023, will continue to lead the club’s pursuit of silverware while remaining committed to its dynamic, attacking style, strong youth development framework and club centric strategy.
SYDNEY FC CEO MARK AUBREY ON CLUB FUTURE & YOUTH DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY – JUNE 2024
Sydney FC Chief Executive Officer Mark Aubrey says Talay’s football philosophy and his alignment with the club’s long-term vision were key factors in the decision to re-sign the former Sydney FC midfielder.
“We pride ourselves on having a pro-active, attacking, dynamic, football philosophy, that all our coaches adhere to, while integrating our youth pathways.
“Following a disappointing season it is very easy to simply deflect everything onto the Head Coach but this is just one piece of our holistic football strategy to which we will make appropriate changes; and post our Men’s football review, the Sydney FC Board believe Ufuk remains the coach who has the ability to fulfill that strategy,” he said.
“Last season was disappointing by our high standards, but this is a long-term strategy and we are making inroads.
“In Ufuk we have a coach who has shown his ability to implement an attacking brand of football while bringing through young talent like Adrian Segecic, Hayden Matthews, Jake Girdwood-Reich and Wataru Kamijo.
“Youth development and professional pathways have always been important to Sydney FC but with recent changes to the A-League they are becoming more important than ever.
“However, winning trophies is a must for Sydney FC. That remains our ultimate goal, and we must get back to that.
“There are valuable learnings and improvements to make, but we remain determined that we are on the right path.”
Talay is confident a redefined squad will respond strongly in the new campaign.
“We are working on next season already and believe with strengthening and changes we will see the success everyone at this club wants to deliver,” Talay said.
“We came close to making history in Asia and achieving something special last season and while it ultimately was disappointing, we were not too far away.
“I think there were still plenty of positives to build on, particularly our ability to score goals and entertain, as well as the emergence of our younger players.
“We do need to take learnings from last season and will work better to balance our recruitment with our younger players.
“We are trying to develop our own and provide opportunities for our Academy graduates; and at the same time, still vie to win trophies.
“It all starts again in July, when we will prepare for the Wrexham game before aiming to have the squad ready firing on all cylinders for the Australia Cup.”
Sydney FC’s pre-season preparations will begin in mid-June with the squad building towards the 2025 Australia Cup Round of 32.
