John Aloisi

Personal information
Full name	John Aloisi
Date of birth	5 February 1976 (1976-02-05) (age 33)
Place of birth	Adelaide, Australia
Height	1.84 m (6 ft +1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Sydney FC
Number	9
Youth career
1992	AIS
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1991-1992	Adelaide City	1	(0)
1992-1993	Standard Liège	0	(0)
1993-1995	Royal Antwerp	35	(7)
1995-1997	Cremonese	48	(4)
1997-1998	Portsmouth	60	(25)
1998-2001	Coventry City	41	(10)
2001-2005	Osasuna	121	(28)
2005-2007	Deportivo Alavés	57	(16)
2007-2008	Central Coast Mariners	15	(7)
2008-	Sydney FC	30	(7)
National team‡
1992	Australia U-20	6	(1)
2004	Australia U-23	7	(3)
1997-2007	Australia	55	(27)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 16:47, 26 October 2009 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 17:30, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

John Aloisi (born 5 February 1976 in Adelaide, Australia) is an Australian football (soccer) striker who currently plays for Sydney FC in the A-League. He is the younger brother of former Wellington Phoenix FC captain Ross Aloisi.

[edit] Club career

Aloisi could be considered one of football's quintessential journeymen. Aloisi signed for English Premiership side Coventry City in December 1998, following a high scoring start to the season for Division One side Portsmouth F.C.. The fee was a bargain at £600,000 due to Portsmouth's financial troubles at the time.

He made his debut in a 1-1 home draw with Derby, being introduced as substitute a few minutes from the end. In his short time on the pitch he came close to scoring the winning goal causing the home fans to curse their manager for not introducing the debutant earlier. In the next home game against Tottenham Hotspur, Aloisi was again on the bench. This time though he came off the bench to equalise salvaging another 1-1 draw in the process.

Aloisi's next notable performance came in a historic 4-1 win away at Villa Park against Aston Villa. This was Coventry's first ever away victory in the League against their Midlands rivals. Aloisi bagged two goals, playing his part in an excellent team performance. Aloisi started in the next game - a home match against fellow strugglers Charlton Athletic - but ended up being sent off for raising his hands against a Charlton player.

Despite being popular with the fans, Aloisi was not able to claim a regular starting place in the 1999/2000 season or the 2000/01 season due to a spate of injuries. In 1999/2000 he scored in consecutive home defeats against Manchester United and Leeds United but injuries prevented him from taking part for much of the season. In total he made just seven appearances. 2000/01 was a disappointing season for Coventry as they were relegated from the Premiership. Aloisi made 18 appearances, scoring 3 goals - notably a cracking strike in a 2-1 home victory over Tottenham Hotspur. Following relegation, Aloisi was allowed to leave Highfield Road, and came close to signing for Crystal Palace. This deal fell through and he eventually moved to Pamplona in Spain to play for CA Osasuna. He signed a 2 year deal with Alaves in the summer of 2005, after a move to Panathinaikos collapsed. He moved on a free transfer from CA Osasuna where he played from 2001. He is the only Australian to have played in the world's three biggest football leagues (England, Spain, Italy).

In 2006 Aloisi was named South Australian of the Year by The Advertiser newspaper.^[1] On 17 May 2007 it was reported that Aloisi, after rejecting an offer from Australian A-League clubs Queensland Roar and Perth Glory, was considering an offer from fellow A-League club Sydney FC. Sydney where looking to sign Aloisi as their marquee player whose salary would be exempt from the league's salary cap.^[2] This move never eventuated.

On 20 October 2007 it was announced that Aloisi had signed with the Central Coast Mariners for the remainder of season three. The Central Coast Mariners were able to not include John's wages in the salary cap due to a loop hole relating to injured players.^[3] He made his debut in the A-League on the 28 October against Sydney FC in their 3-2 defeat.^[4] After their narrow grand final lost the Central Coast Mariners had hoped Aloisi would re-sign and become their Marquee Player and captain for the 2008/09 season.

However on 3 March 2008 it was confirmed that Aloisi had signed a two year deal with Sydney FC.^[5] Although the figure has not been disclosed it is reportedly worth $1.4 million a season, making the Socceroos hero the highest-paid player based in Australia in any of the four football codes. He made his Sydney FC debut as a second half substitute for Shannon Cole on 31 August 2008 against Perth Glory at the Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney. He scored his first goal for Sydney in their 2-0 upset win over arch rivals Melbourne Victory. Aloisi was rumoured to retire after not appearing since his nightmare performance against Perth Glory, where he missed two open-goal sitters. Since then he has missed all Sydney FC's matches due to a recurring quadricep injury.

Aloisi appears on the cover of the Australian version of Pro Evolution Soccer 6.

On 18 February 2009 the Australian striker was linked with a loan move to Shanghai Shenhua (China). The player, will return to his team, Sydney FC, at the end of the Chinese Super League season. Aloisi soon after decided against a loan stint, opting instead to spend the entire pre-season with Sydney FC, under the club's new coach, Vitezslav Lavicka.^[6] Aloisi helped his selection chances with good pre-season form ahead of the 2009-10 season scoring a double against Newcastle Jets ahead of the new season.^[7] He turned around last shocking season, by scoring a double in Sydney's 3-2 win over North Queensland Fury in Townsville, in the first game of the season. But after this game aloisi has not impressed and his bad form scine leaveing the mariners and joining Sydney FC Has continued.

On 6/12/09 Aloisi impressed the SFS in which he scored in the opening 10 minutes, sweeping the ball past Justin Pasfield of the North Queensland Fury.In this game his performance was better than average, as he continually took his chances, and thus scored off one. Despite this game being well played, he has only scored 2 goals at the SFS for Sydney, something which to the locals says that he shouldn't be next seasons marquee player. The media state the match might be a revival, or just another good game amidst numerous games in which he has poorly performed.

[edit] International career

Aloisi taking the now-famous penalty that secured the victory over Uruguay and Australia's place in the World Cup.

Aloisi was the top scorer for his country at the 2005 Confederations Cup in Germany scoring four goals, two against Germany and two against Argentina - earning him the bronze shoe. He also represented Australia at the 2004 Olympics as one out of three overage players - scoring three goals.

On 16 November 2005, Aloisi scored the decisive penalty-kick against Uruguay in a playoff that put Australia into the 2006 FIFA World Cup - the first time Australia had reached the World Cup finals since 1974.

He was selected in Australia's 2006 World Cup squad, and on 12 June 2006, Aloisi came off the bench to score the third goal in Australia's 3-1 victory over Japan. He became only the second Australian in history to score a goal at the World Cup Finals, after his teammate Tim Cahill.

To date John Aloisi has scored 27 goals in 54 appearances for the Australian national team. This makes him the second highest goal scorer ever for Australia, and only two goals behind the record, held by Damian Mori with 29. Aloisi has stated he will continue to play for Australia until after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Recently, Aloisi scored in the Socceroos quarter-final match against Japan in their first ever Asian Cup in the 70th minute to give Australia the lead but the Japanese equalised two minutes later through Naohiro Takahara after a defensive blunder by defender Mark Milligan. Aloisi was substituted later on during the game as Australia lost 4-3 in penalties with Australian midfielder Harry Kewell, defender and captain, (after Mark Viduka was substituted) Lucas Neill missing spot kicks.

Aloisi's penalty kick against Uruguay in 2005, which took the Socceroos to the World Cup finals, was recently voted by the Sport Australia Hall of Fame as one of three greatest moments in Australian sporting history.

Since his return to the A-League, Aloisi's form has declined and he has been dropped from the national team.

[edit] International goals

Scores and results list Australia's goal tally first.

Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Competition	Scored
1997-06-11	Parramatta Stadium, Sydney	Solomon Islands	13-0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	5 (5)
1997-06-28	North Harbour Stadium, Auckland	New Zealand	3-0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	1 (6)
1997-12-12	King Fahd II Stadium, Riyadh	Mexico	3-1	1997 FIFA Confederations Cup	1 (7)
2000-10-04	Dubai	Kuwait	1-0	International Match	1 (8)
2001-04-09	International Sports Stadium, Coffs Harbour	Tonga	22-0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification	6 (14)
2001-06-24	Stadium Australia, Sydney	New Zealand	4-1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification	1 (15)
2004-06-04	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide	Vanuatu	3-0	2004 OFC Nations Cup	2 (17)
2005-06-15	Waldstadion, Frankfurt	Germany	3-4	2005 FIFA Confederations Cup	2 (19)
2005-06-18	Frankenstadion, Nuremberg	Argentina	2-4	2005 FIFA Confederations Cup	2 (21)
2005-10-09	Craven Cottage, London	Jamaica	5-0	International Match	1 (22)
2006-06-08	Donaustadion, Ulm	Liechtenstein	3-1	International Match	1 (23)
2006-06-12	Fritz Walter Stadion, Kaiserslautern	Japan	3-1	2006 FIFA World Cup	1 (24)
2006-10-11	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Bahrain	2-0	2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification	1 (25)
2006-11-15	Loftus Road, London	Ghana	1-1	International Match	1 (26)
2007-07-21	My Dinh National Stadium, Hanoi	Japan	1-1	2007 AFC Asian Cup	1 (27)

[edit] Honours

With Australia:

• FIFA Confederations Cup: 1997 (Runners-Up)
• OFC Nations Cup: 2004

With Central Coast Mariners:

• A-League Premiership: 2007-2008

With Adelaide City:

• NSL Championship: 1991-1992

Personal Honours:

• FIFA Confederations Cup: 2005 Bronze Shoe (4 goals)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sydney FC profile
• FFA - Socceroo profile
• Football Database profile
• OzFootball profile
• Yahoo World Cup profile
• ESPN feature interview

Australia Squads v • d • e Australia squad – 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup Runners-up 1 Bosnich • 2 Horvat • 3 Lazaridis • 4 Ivanović • 5 Tobin • 6 Zelić • 7 Slater • 8 Foster • 9 Viduka • 10 A. Vidmar • 11 Kewell • 12 Bingley • 13 Hooker • 14 T. Vidmar • 15 Skoko • 16 Trimboli • 17 Mori • 18 Aloisi • 19 Tapai • 20 Kalac • 21 Muscat • Coach: Venables v • d • e Australia squad – 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Muscat • 3 Moore • 4 Okon • 5 T. Vidmar • 6 Popovic • 7 Skoko • 8 Lazaridis • 9 Aloisi • 10 Emerton • 11 Zdrilic • 12 Bolton • 13 Bresciano • 14 Murphy • 15 Foxe • 16 Horvat • 17 Corica • 18 Chipperfield • 19 A. Vidmar • 20 Zane • 21 Thompson • 22 Sterjovski • 23 Jurić • Coach: Farina v • d • e Australia squad – 2004 Summer Olympics 1 Jones • 2 North • 3 Cansdell-Sherriff • 4 Moore • 5 McKain • 6 Madaschi • 7 Elrich • 8 Wilkshire • 9 Aloisi • 10 Cahill • 11 Brosque • 12 Tarka • 13 Valeri • 14 Holman • 15 Danze • 16 Dilevski • 17 Griffiths • 18 Galeković • Coach: Farina v • d • e Australia squad – 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Muscat • 3 Moore • 4 Neill • 5 T. Vidmar • 6 Popovic • 7 Emerton • 8 Skoko • 9 Viduka • 10 Cahill • 11 Chipperfield • 12 Petkovic • 13 Wilkshire • 14 Colosimo • 15 Aloisi • 16 Zdrilic • 17 McKain • 18 Kalac • 19 Čulina • 20 Miličević • 21 Elrich • 22 Thompson • 23 Sterjovski • Coach: Farina v • d • e Australia squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Neill • 3 Moore • 4 Cahill • 5 Čulina • 6 Popovic • 7 Emerton • 8 Skoko • 9 Viduka • 10 Kewell • 11 Lazaridis • 12 Čović • 13 Grella • 14 Chipperfield • 15 Aloisi • 16 Beauchamp • 17 Thompson • 18 Kalac • 19 Kennedy • 20 Wilkshire • 21 Sterjovski • 22 Milligan • 23 Bresciano • Coach: Hiddink v • d • e Australia squad – 2007 AFC Asian Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Neill • 3 Kisnorbo • 4 Cahill • 5 Čulina • 6 Beauchamp • 7 Emerton • 8 Wilkshire • 9 Viduka • 10 Kewell • 11 Thompson • 12 Jones • 13 Grella • 14 Holman • 15 Aloisi • 16 Thwaite • 17 Valeri • 18 Petkovic • 19 Carle • 20 Carney • 21 Sterjovski • 22 Milligan • 23 Bresciano • Coach: Arnold