Željko Kalac

Kalac as Goalkeeper Coach of Sydney FC ( 2012)

Zeljko Kalac ( born December 16, 1972 in Sydney, Croatian spelling: Željko Kalac, [ ʒɛʎkɔ kalats ] ) is an Australian former football goalkeeper, whose parents emigrated from Croatia to Australia. He belonged to the Australian national football team squad for the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany.

Clubs

Kalac started his career in his hometown at Sydney United and then moved to England to Leicester City. But since he rarely came into use here, he returned to the 1996/97 season back to Sydney. After two seasons in which he was used regularly, the Australians moved to the 1998/99 season to Roda JC Kerkrade in the Dutch Eredivisie. After he had a total of four seasons long goalkeeper in Kerkrade, Kalac moved to the beginning of the season 2002/ 03 for Italian Serie A club AC Perugia. Again, he immediately became the main goalkeeper and he remained so until the 2005/06 season when he moved to AC Milan. 2009, his contract with AC Milan was dissolved. On September 1, 2009, he joined the Greek club AO Kavala.

National

Long Kalac was behind the spare keeper Mark Bosnich Australia, in 2004 he became the first-choice goalkeeper. But in 2005, when Mark Schwarzer from Middlesbrough FC New Root Keeper of Australia, the then graduated in 2006 three out of four games and in the World Cup. Only in the group match against Croatia was Kalac in goal, but could not convince and acted in both goals against - in the game, which ended in a 2-2 draw - unhappy. With a friendly match against Paraguay in October 2006 Kalac ended his international career, and for his long-standing national companions Tony Popovic, Stan Lazaridis and Tony Vidmar this was the farewell game.

Achievements

• Champions League winner with AC Milan in 2007