Shane Smeltz

Shane Smeltz

Shane Smeltz (born 29 September 1981 in Göppingen, Germany ) is a New Zealand soccer player who is active for Perth Glory. He moved in winter 2011 from Turkey back to Gold Coast United and after the 2010/11 season to Perth Glory.

Childhood and youth

Shane Smeltz was born in Germany. His parents were members of the U.S. Army and stationed near Göppingen. He moved with his family at the age of almost a year back to New Zealand. Up to the age of six he stayed there before his family moved to Queensland, Australia. He lived in Cairns, Brisbane and on the Gold Coast. Smeltz has in addition the New Zealand citizenship and the Australian because his wife is Australian and the English, because his mother is from England.

Club career

From 1999 to 2004, he played for various Australian clubs. Except in 2002, as Smeltz played for Napier City Rovers in the New Zealand National Soccer League.

In 2005 he moved to Mansfield Town in the English Football League Two. He then played for AFC Wimbledon and scored 26 goals in 43 league games. Even with Halifax Town he was under contract and could score two goals in 31 games there.

Wellington Phoenix

Smeltz returned back to New Zealand in 2007 and signed a two-year contract with Wellington Phoenix. He was named Player of the Year in New Zealand in the same year. In his first season in the A-League he was able to secure second place in the Torschützliste with nine goals. In the 2008/2009 season he scored 12 goals and was top scorer. Since the founding of the A-League, these were until then the most goals had a player scored in a season.

Gold Coast United

In November 2008, Phoenix lost the race for Smeltz against Gold Coast United. The striker signed a three -year contract with the then newly established team. Gold Coast United played his first game against Mudgeeraba SC, an Australian amateur club, and won 12:1. Smeltz scored nine goals here. 8 August 2009 Smeltz scored the first competitive goal in history for Gold Coast United. A week later he scored four goals against North Queensland Fury. In the 2009/10 season Smeltz scored a total of 19 goals, setting a record for the most goals in a season. He also became the second consecutive top scorer in the league.

His move to Chinese club Shandong Luneng was published on July 12, 2010. Shane Smeltz, however, had finished his two-year commitment to the Chinese club Shandong Luneng after only five days. It is impossible for his wife Nikki and two children to acclimate in Shandong, Smeltz explained his surprising decision. He returned to Gold Coast United, since the move to China had not been validly. Then he moved to Gençlerbirliği Ankara, but where he remained only half a year and returned to Gold Coast United.

Perth Glory

For the 2011/12 season Smeltz moved to Perth Glory. In 2012, he was with Glory in the final of the A-League, but failed there to Brisbane Roar. In 2013 he reached the finals Perth again, but they lost in the semi-final against Melbourne Victory.

National

Smeltz played for the U- 20 and U -23 New Zealand. His first international goal for New Zealand, he scored on 25 April 2006 in a friendly against Chile. This game was simultaneously made ​​his debut for the All Whites.

The first major tournament for him was the OFC Nations Cup. 2008th In this tournament, he was top scorer with eight goals and was able to win the title with New Zealand Because of this victory, played with New Zealand in South Africa in the Confederations Cup 2009. Even with the Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa Smeltz was part of the squad of New Zealanders. The team was eliminated in the first round, although they have lost none of their three games. Smeltz scored in the second group match against Italy the goal to make it 1-0.