Alan Davidson (Australian soccer)

Alan Edward Davidson (born 1 June 1960) is an Australian former association football player who played as a defender or midfielder. He represented the Australia national team, earning over 50 caps, and played club football for teams including South Melbourne and Melbourne Croatia in the National Soccer League. Davidson also had a successful stint in Malaysia, playing for Pahang FA, where he won multiple domestic titles. Known for his strong tackling and leadership, he was a key figure in Australian soccer during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Davidson made his senior debut in the Victorian State League in 1976 at the age of 15 playing for Altona City SC which had been his junior club. He transferred to South Melbourne in 1978, where he played until the end of the 1984 season, making 155 appearances and scoring 13 goals.

He moved to England for the 1984–85 season for Nottingham Forest F.C. and a promising start where he broke into the first team as a right-back was curtailed by illness after suffering a blow to the head and having a seizure during a reserve game on a very cold night which side lined him till the end of the season. He resumed training and played for the first team before suffering a serious back injury which sidelined him for over a year, forcing him into early retirement at the age of 25. He returned home to Melbourne.

He resumed playing in Australia at the end of 1986 for South Melbourne and in 1987 transferred to Melbourne Croatia, making 133 appearances and scoring 10 goals from 1987 to the end of the 1991–92 season and transferred to M-League club Pahang FA in Malaysia during 1992 where he was voted the League's best player, guiding the team to the M-League Championship and Malaysia Cup double. He was the only foreign player ever to be honored and received an AMP awarded by the Sultan of Pahang in 1996.

During 1989 Davidson led the Australia National Futsal Team to the first ever FIFA Futsal World Cup in the Netherlands where he played in all three round one games against Zimbabwe, Italy and United States. Brazil were crowned FIFA Futsal World Champions beating the Netherlands 2–1 in the final.

Near the end of his playing career, he guested for South Melbourne FC for two seasons (1994 and 1995), while with the Malaysian club Pahang FA between (1992 and 1996). His penultimate season (1996–97) he guested with the Collingwood Warriors, and his last season (1997–98) was back with the Melbourne Knights.

He finally retired in 1998 at the age of 38 after three World Cup campaigns, one 1989 FIFA Futsal World Cup and an Olympic Games: 1988 Seoul Olympics, 79 Socceroo appearances, 51 FIFA full A internationals and was number #32 official Socceroo Captain and Socceroo Cap No-292. He was inducted to the Football Federation Australia Football Hall of Fame – in the Hall of Champions category – in 2001.

Davidson was appointed the head coach of his former team Pahang in January 1999, however he parted ways with Pahang in April the same year.