Archie Thompson

Archibald Gerald Thompson (born 23 October 1978) is an Australian former professional footballer. He also is serving as a club ambassador for Melbourne Victory FC.[2]

For the American Yurok elder, see Archie Thompson (Yurok), for the Australian rules footballer for Geelong, see Archie Thompson (Australian rules footballer)

Archie Thompson
Thompson playing for Melbourne Victory FC in 2012.
Personal information
Full name Archibald Gerald Thompson
Date of birth (1978-10-23) 23 October 1978
Place of birth Otorohanga, Waikato, New Zealand
Height 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Position(s) Striker / Winger
Youth career
Lithgow Rangers
Twin City Wanderers
1994–1995 NSWIS
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1995–1996 Bathurst '75 16 (9)
1996–1999 Gippsland Falcons 43 (10)
1999–2000 Carlton SC 53 (23)
2001 Marconi Stallions 13 (6)
2001–2005 Lierse 90 (28)
2005–2016 Melbourne Victory 224 (90)
2006 → PSV (loan) 2 (0)
2016 Heidelberg United 2 (0)
2017–2019 Murray United 38 (12)
2019 Racing Murcia 1 (1)
2020 Essendon Royals 0 (0)
National team‡
1998–2008 Australia U-23 10 (1)
2001–2013 Australia 54 (28)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18 February 2020
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 4 January 2016

Born in New Zealand, Thompson played youth football at the New South Wales Institute of Sport before going on to play numerous seasons in the National Soccer League and A-League. After eleven seasons with Melbourne Victory, he moved on to play for Heidelberg United in 2016. Thompson also played overseas, for Belgian Pro League side Lierse and for Dutch Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven.

Thompson has played over 50 times for Australia, scoring 28 goals. He was in the squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the 2001 and 2005 FIFA Confederations Cups, the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, the 2008 Summer Olympics and the successful 2004 OFC Nations Cup.

He holds the all time goal scoring record for a single international match, where he scored 13 goals in a 31–0 victory against American Samoa, in 2001.

Club career
Thompson signing an autograph at a Melbourne Victory fan day.

Early career

Archie Thompson began his career as a teenager in Bathurst, breaking into the senior squad in 1995. At the close of the 1996 season, he secured a move to the National Soccer League, signing with the Gippsland Falcons midway through the 1996–97 season. His exceptional pace and skill on the ball were instantly recognisable in a mediocre team, and it wasn't long before he was snapped up by Carlton, becoming a key goalscorer in an attack-minded squad. The demise of Carlton saw a return to Sydney, where he spent the remainder of the 2000–01 season with Marconi after being signed by mastermind Head of Operations Tony "Bagonk" Trimboli, before ultimately signing with Belgium's Lierse SK. A fan favourite, Thompson scored 9 goals in his first season with the Belgian First Division club before injury curtailed his progress. In his fourth season in Belgium, he was the club's leading scorer, with 14 goals in 29 league appearances.

Melbourne Victory

Due to his strong form, he was lured back home to play for Melbourne Victory in 2005 (the inaugural A-League season), scoring the team's first ever regular season goal. With the A-League season finishing in March and a four-month gap between then and Australia's first World Cup group match, Thompson was approached in late 2005 join Dutch team PSV Eindhoven on a temporary loan. PSV was then coached by Guus Hiddink, who was also the Australian national team's head coach, and playing for the team would provide Thompson with the match fitness and exposure to help his chances of being selected in the World Cup team. After negotiations between the Victory and PSV stalled over the financial terms of the deal, Thompson was officially placed on six-month loan to PSV Eindhoven on 13 January 2006. He played what was thought at the time to be his final Melbourne Victory game against Queensland Roar, scoring the only goal as the team's acting captain.[3] This goal took his tally to 8 for the season, which made him Melbourne Victory's inaugural Golden Boot winner. He also tied for the A-League's top goal scorer (the Reebok Golden Boot award) with Alex Brosque, Bobby Despotovski and Stewart Petrie. Thompson made just two appearances for PSV as a substitute. He was informed by the club that they would not be signing him to a further deal, and so he returned to Melbourne Victory for the A-League 2006-07 season.

Resuming with Melbourne Victory in domestic football, Thompson formed a deadly partnership in the second season of the A-League with strike partner Danny Allsopp, who both benefited from the attacking skills of Brazilian midfielder Fred.

Their quality forward play lead Melbourne to become both premiers and champions of the A-League in 2006–07.

Thompson starred in the 2007 A-League Grand Final on 18 February 2007, scoring 5 goals and helping Melbourne Victory to a 6–0 thrashing of rivals Adelaide United. In becoming the first player to score more than 3 goals in an A-League match, Thompson exceeded his own expectations, predicting before the game that he would get a hat trick. For his efforts, Thompson was awarded the Joe Marston Medal as the Man of the Match.

Thompson scored the winner against Robbie Fowler's North Queensland Fury in the third game of the 2009–10 A-League season.

During the 2009–2010 Hyundai A League grand final between the Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC, Archie was stretchered off after only 12 minutes due to tearing his knee ligaments. During the post game interview, Archie confirmed that it looks like he will require a full knee reconstruction, resulting in him being out of action for up to 12 months.

Thompson played his first game in the A-League 2010–11 season loss against Gold Coast United, after coming back from a major knee reconstruction.

He went on to win the 2014–15 A-League and 2015 FFA Cup with Victory.[4]

On 30 April 2016, Melbourne Victory announced they hadn't renewed Thompson's contract with Thompson departing the club at the end of their 2016 ACL campaign. Thompson spent 11 seasons with the club, scoring 90 goals, 10 of them in finals matches (both numbers being records at the time of his departure from the club).[5]

On 12 September 2016, Thompson was appointed as a club ambassador of Melbourne Victory.[2]

National Premier Leagues Victoria

On 6 August 2016, Thompson signed a short-term, two-game deal with National Premier Leagues Victoria team Heidelberg United.

In something of a homecoming, Thompson signed up for a full season with Murray United FC, based in Albury–Wodonga, home of his parents, ahead of the 2017 National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 season.[6][7] He made his debut for Murray United as a 57th-minute substitute against Melbourne City FC NPL.

Racing Murcia

On 20 August 2019, Thompson signed a contract for fifth division Spanish side Racing Murcia.[8] The club has high ambitions as they aim for promotion to La Liga, the top division in Spain, within five years.[9] Thompson made his debut on 2 September 2019 coming on as a substitute in the 64th minute against Abarán CF.[10] In a video documenting the progress of the club uploaded to SBS The World Game, it was announced that Thompson had left the club and returned home to Australia.[11]

International career
Archie Thompson playing for Australia against Kuwait in 2010.

Thompson made his first international appearance for Australia on 28 February 2001 in a friendly match against Colombia. He then was included by coach Frank Farina in the squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification matches played in April 2001. On 9 April 2001, he came on as a substitute and scored his first international goal in Australia's first match against Tonga, which Australia easily won 22–0, breaking the world record for the largest win in an international match.[12] Two days later, in the match against American Samoa, Thompson was named as starter with regular attackers either rested or omitted from the squad. Australia went on to break their own record by winning 31–0, with Thompson scoring 13 goals, breaking the world record for most goals scored in an international match. American Samoa, who had player eligibility issues, fielded a team with youth players and was not a match to Australia, even though Australia themselves were missing several star players.[13]

A month later, Thompson was named in Australia's squad for the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup. He made two substitute appearances on the tournament as Australia went on to achieve third place at the competition. In total, Thompson made 7 international appearances in 2001, scoring an impressive 16 goals. However, after 2001, he was not called up by Farina for more than three years before earning a recall in 2004.

On 12 October 2004, he was recalled to the team and made a substitute appearance in the 2004 OFC Nations Cup final, which Australia won. Since then, Thompson was more regularly called up to the national team, although most of his appearances were as a substitute. He was also included in Australia's squad for the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, appearing in two matches as a substitute. In 2005, Thompson returned to Australia to play for Melbourne Victory in the inaugural A-League season. Despite not playing in Europe, he retained his place in the national team and became the only A-League based player in Australia's squad for the qualification matches against Uruguay for a berth in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.[14] Australia eventually qualified for the 2006 World Cup. His good form for Melbourne earned Thompson a place in Australia's squad for the World Cup. He was one of three A-League based players in the squad, even though he spent the run-up to the tournament on loan at PSV Eindhoven.[15] However, he did not receive any playing time in the tournament, as Australia was eliminated in the second round.

In 2007, Thompson was once again included in Australia's squad for a major tournament. This time, Thompson participated in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, appearing as a substitute once, in a match against the eventual winners Iraq. In 2008, Thompson was included in Australia's under-23 squad for the 2008 Olympics as one of the three over-age players allowed in the team.[16] National coach Pim Verbeek described Thompson's performance against Indonesia in February 2009 as "absolutely hopeless".[17]

Thompson returned to the national team in 2012 and scored in a 3–0 win against Lebanon, his first international goal in 6 years. Three days later, he scored in a 2–1 loss to Jordan. His goal scoring form continued as he scored a last-gasp winner in a 2–1 victory over Iraq in a must-win 2014 World Cup qualifier. Thompson was selected in the squad to take part in East Asian Cup qualification in Hong Kong, and Thompson was crowned top-goalscorer of the 2013 East Asian Cup. On 5 November, he scored against North Korea in a 1–1 draw. Two days later, he scored one of the fastest hat-tricks in history after coming on as a substitute and scoring the three in between the 58th and 65th minutes in a 9–0 win over Guam. This meant that Thompson has scored 28 international goals, one behind the 29 of Damian Mori and 22 behind the Australian record of 50, held by Tim Cahill.

Goalscoring world record
See also: Australia 31–0 American Samoa

Thompson's 13 goals broke the previous record of 7 goals, which was jointly held by another Australian, Gary Cole, who scored seven goals against Fiji in the 1982 World Cup qualification on 14 August 1981,[18] and Iranian Karim Bagheri, who also scored seven goals against Maldives in the 1998 World Cup qualification on 2 June 1997.[13][19] Some sources mentioned that the previous record was 10 goals, which was achieved by Denmark's Sophus "Krølben" Nielsen in a 17–1 win against France at the 1908 Olympics and Germany's Gottfried Fuchs in a 16–0 win against Russia at the 1912 Olympics.[20] These matches, although fully recognized by FIFA, were played by amateur players. Thompson also equaled the world record for most goals scored in a recognized senior match, set in 1885 when John Petrie scored 13 goals in Arbroath's 36–0 win over Bon Accord in a Scottish Cup tournament.

Personal life

Thompson was born in Otorohanga to a New Zealand father and Papua New Guinean mother.[21] He has three brothers and two sisters. He has two children, Isabella and Axel, and bears one tattoo on each of his inner forearms of his children's names.[22] Archie was the official ambassador for FIFA 08 in Australia and New Zealand.[23]

Thompson is a fan of the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League.[24]

In October 2010 his book What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger was released by Melbourne University Publishing.[25]

Career statistics

Club
As of 8 October 2018[26]
Club Division Season League National Cup Continental Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Gippsland Falcons National Soccer League 1996–97 62––62
1997–98 224––224
1998–99 154––154
Total 4310––4310
Carlton SC National Soccer League 1998–99 105––105
1999–2000 3512––3512
2000–01 86––86
Total 5323––5323
Marconi Stallions National Soccer League 2000–01 136––136
Lierse Belgian First Division 2001–02 31932–3411
2002–03 5000–50
2003–04 25421–275
2004–05 291442–3316
Total 902795–9932
PSV Eindhoven Eredivisie 2005–06 20––20
Melbourne Victory A-League 2005–06 15842–1910
2006–07 221552–2717
2007–08 2062031257
2008–09 19900–199
2009–10 2611–102711
2010–11 94–60154
2011–12 277–00277
2012–13 229–00229
2013–14 249–50299
2014–15 261121–2812
2015–16 1412081242
Total 2249015523226297
Heidelberg United NPL Victoria 2016 20––20
Murray United[27] NPL Victoria 2 2017 217––217
2018 50––50
Total 267––267
Career total 4531632410232500175

International

[28]

Australia
YearAppsGoals
2001716
200200
200300
200411
200583
200671
200750
200820
200920
201010
201110
2012127
201380
Total5428

International goals
Scores and results list Australia's goal tally first.
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
19 April 2001Coffs Harbour International Stadium, Coffs Harbour, Australia Tonga18–022–02002 FIFA World Cup Qualification
211 April 2001Coffs Harbour International Stadium, Coffs Harbour, Australia American Samoa2–031–02002 FIFA World Cup Qualification
38–0
410–0
511–0
612–0
714–0
815–0
916–0
1020–0
1122–0
1223–0
1329–0
1430–0
1516 April 2001Coffs Harbour International Stadium, Coffs Harbour, Australia Samoa7–011–02002 FIFA World Cup Qualification
1610–0
1712 October 2004Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia Solomon Islands4–06–02004 OFC Nations Cup
183 September 2005Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia Solomon Islands6–07–02006 FIFA World Cup Qualification
196 September 2005Lawson Tama Stadium, Honiara, Solomon Islands Solomon Islands1–02–12006 FIFA World Cup Qualification
209 October 2005Craven Cottage, London, England Jamaica2–05–0Friendly
2122 February 2006Bahrain National Stadium, Riffa, Bahrain Bahrain1–13–12007 AFC Asian Cup Qualification
227 September 2012Saida International Stadium, Sidon, Lebanon Lebanon3–03–0Friendly
2311 September 2012King Abdullah II Stadium, Amman, Jordan Jordan1–21–22014 FIFA World Cup Qualification
2416 October 2012Grand Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar Iraq2–12–12014 FIFA World Cup Qualification
255 December 2012Hong Kong Stadium, So Kon Po, Hong Kong North Korea1–01–12013 EAFF East Asian Cup
267 December 2012Hong Kong Stadium, So Kon Po, Hong Kong Guam5–09–02013 EAFF East Asian Cup
276–0
287–0

Honours

Club

Melbourne Victory

International

Australia

Individual

Records

See also

References
  1. "Archibald Thompson". Socceroos. Football Federation Australia. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  2. "Archie Thompson becomes Melbourne Victory ambassador". Melbourne Victory FC. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  3. Associated Press (2006) Thompson transfer completed: Victory.
  4. "Archie Thompson to leave Melbourne Victory after 11 seasons, as club opts not to re-sign striker". ABC. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  5. "Archie Thompson calls time at Melbourne Victory". Melbourne Victory. 30 April 2016.
  6. Archie: I Want to Give Back FourFourTwo Australia, Celemt Tito, 31 January 2017
  7. Greco, John. "Archie's back! Legend signs for Victorian border side". A-League. Football Federation Australia. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  8. "Thompson signs for Racing Murcia". beIN SPORTS. 20 August 2019. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  9. Francis, Kieran (20 August 2019). "Archie Thompson to continue his playing career with Spanish club Racing Murcia". Goal. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  10. "The misfortune of the crossbar avoids seeing an afternoon with goals". Racing Murcia FC. 2 September 2019. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  11. Archie Thompson is missed in Spain | The World Game, retrieved 29 October 2019
  12. Harris, Nick (10 April 2001). "'Exposed' Tonga lose 22–0". The Independent. London: Independent News and Media Limited. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
  13. Davies, Christopher (11 April 2001). "Australia score 31 without loss in record win". Telegraph.co.uk. London: Telegraph Media Group Limited. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
  14. "Moore left out of Australian squad". CNN.com. Time Warner Company. 28 October 2005. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
  15. "Thompson seals PSV deal". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 13 January 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
  16. "Thompson, Carney, North get Olyroos call". The Age. Melbourne: Fairfax Digital. 4 July 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
  17. "Verbeek unleashes on 'hopeless' Socceroos pair". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 24 February 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  18. Lynch, Michael (12 December 2004). "The all-important Cole difference". The Age. Melbourne: The Age Company Ltd. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
  19. "Iran fanatics keep close eye on the Valley". guardian.co.uk. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. 30 December 2000. Archived from the original on 24 June 2009. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
  20. Rookwood, Dan (11 April 2001). "Aussie Rules as Socceroos smash world record again". guardian.co.uk. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
  21. Murray, Les. "Thank you, Mr Entertainment". The World Game. Special Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  22. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  23. PDT (28 September 2007). "Aussie A-League featured in FIFA 08 - GameSpot.com". Au.gamespot.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  24. Kicking around Martin Boulton for The Age 11 January 2008
  25. "MUP Publications – Home". Catalogue.mup.com.au. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  26. "Archie Thompson » Club matches". worldfootball.net. HEIM:SPIEL.
  27. "Archie Thompson". SportsTG. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  28. "Archie Thompson". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmerman. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
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