Player #893 for Aston Villa, Michael John Jedinak known as Mile Jedinak played as a midfielder for the club between 2016-17 and 2018-19 making 80 appearances and scoring twice.

Mile was born in Sydney on 3 August 1984

Roberto Di Matteo had signed Mile from Crystal Palace for a fee of £4,140,000 on 17 August 2016 and his arrival was one of a number of notable Villa signings that the maligned and brief Di Matteo management team oversaw including Tommy Elphick, James Chester, Albert Adomah and Jonathan Kodjia as well as Mile.

Mile made his debut appearance for Villa at the age of 32 on Saturday, 27 August 2016 in the 1-3 Championship loss against Bristol City.

Although Di Matteo’s regime was short-lived, his transfer legacy was not. Mile, a midfield colossus for Villa in the Championship, but already a relative veteran on joining, made 34 starts for Villa in his debut season but a Villa, still troubled by the previous season’s relegation, and yet to clear the decks of deadwood of the previous era, struggled in the Championship.

For 2017-18, Mile, now 33, made 28 appearances as Villa climbed to fourth in the table and qualified for their first ever Play Off final with Mile scoring the crucial goal in the Semi Final to defeat Middlesbrough on Saturday, 12 May 2018. That would be his second goal for Villa with his first having come on Saturday, 23 December 2017 when Mile put Villa 2-0 up after just nine minutes in the 2-2 draw with Sheffield United.

The Play Off final itself saw a subdued Villa and Mile unluckily fall to an aggressive Fulham outfit that put paid to Villa’s Premier League ambitions for a season.

Mile started 2018-19 as a first team regular - making 9 starts in the first 10 league games of the campaign before losing his place as new arrival John McGinn, Conor Hourihane and Jack Grealish became the first choice midfield. Injury then struck and Mile didn’t feature in the first XI from the start of October through to the middle of January 2019.

Returning to the subs bench, Mile was named in every Villa squad to the end of the season including the three Play Off games however he only made 3 starts and 6 substitute appearances in 21 fixtures making his final appearance for Villa on Tuesday, 14 May 2019 in the Championship Play Off semi final at The Hawthorns.

Mile, who had proven an outstanding penalty taker during his earlier career, was brought on by Dean Smith on 102’+2 immediately prior to the shoot out after the two legged tie ended 2-2. Mile scored his penalty as Villa swept aside West Bromwich Albion and qualified for the Play Off Final.

Mile didn’t feature in the final itself on Monday, 27 May 2019 when Villa beat Derby County to regain their Premier League status after 3 seasons away, however despite Villa’s return to the top flight seeing Mile retire you can’t keep a good Jedi away and he rejoined the club on the coaching staff to inspire a new generation of players.

Mile played under Roberto Di Matteo, Steve Bruce and Dean Smith.