Zeljko Kalac
Kalac in 2012
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 16 December 1972 | ||
| Place of birth | Sydney, NSW, Australia | ||
| Height | 2.02 m (6 ft 7 1⁄2 in) | ||
| Playing position | Goalkeeper | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1988 | Sydney United | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1989–1995 | Sydney United | 92 | (0) |
| 1995–1996 | Leicester City | 2 | (0) |
| 1996–1998 | Sydney United | 30 | (0) |
| 1998–2002 | Roda | 115 | (0) |
| 2002–2005 | Perugia | 79 | (0) |
| 2005–2009 | A.C. Milan | 38 | (0) |
| 2009–2010 | Kavala | 9 | (0) |
| 2010–2011 | Sydney United | ||
| 2013 | Hobart Zebras | 1 | (0) |
| Total | 366 | (0) | |
| National team | |||
| 1992–2006 | Australia | 54 | (0) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 2011–2015 | Sydney FC (GK Coach) | ||
| 2015– | Western Sydney Wanderers (GK Coach) | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Zeljko Kalac (Croatian: Željko Kalac, pronounced [ʒêːʎko kǎːlat͡s]; born 16 December 1972) is a retired Australian football goalkeeper. Nicknamed "Spider" due to his tall, gangly figure, Kalac was one of the world's tallest professional goalkeepers, standing at 2.02 m.
Kalac's preferred playing number (when not the conventional number 1) is 18 and has generally worn this number when playing for Australia. However, when he joined Italian club A.C. Milan in 2005, the number 18 was already claimed by Marek Jankulovski, who joined at the same time, and so he chose number 16. When he transferred to Kavala, number 18 was also taken, so he settled for number 60.
Growing up in the Sydney Croatian community, Kalac began his professional career rising through the ranks at Sydney United, competing in the Australian National Soccer League. At the age of sixteen, he was included in the first team alongside first-choice keeper Tony Franken, playing the first eleven games of the 1989–90 NSL season in Franken's absence, before returning to the substitute bench – a place occupied throughout the 1990–91 season as a stand-out Franken remained fit and was first choice all season.
In the off-season, Franken transferred to local rivals APIA Leichhardt, but Kalac was now competing for a place with a young Mark Bosnich (a former rival at Marconi Fairfield), who had returned from an unsuccessful spell at Manchester United. Kalac would start 21 out of 26 games in the 1991–92 season, the place cemented when Bosnich transferred to Aston Villa later in the season.
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