Nikolai Topor-Stanley

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Nikolai Topor-Stanley (born March 11, 1985) is an Australian football (soccer) player who is currently on a short-term contract with A-League club Sydney FC as a replacement for injured Jacob Timpano [1]. He is a defender and has previously played for NSW Premier League teams Manly United FC and Belconnen Blue Devils, as well as representing Australia in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship. He was also selected to participate in the first training camp for the Beijing Olympics.

On July 15, 2006, Nikolai debuted for Sydney off the bench against Queensland in the Pre-season Cup before scoring his first goal for the club against Newcastle a week later. Nikolai made his A-League debut on August 27, 2006 against the Central Coast Mariners, his performance rated by Sydney newspaper as passing "with flying colours". ^{[citation needed]} In the absence of Timpano, Nikolai has cemented a place in Sydney's first team, having started a number of Sydney FC's games thus far in the 06-07 season.

Topor-Stanley was born to a Mauritian Father of Indian heritage and a Polish-German Mother. His older brother, Sacha, is a business banker. He is known to Sydney fans as "Hyphen", a name that was given to him by Sydney FC supporter's group "The Cove" upon him scoring his first goal for the club. The name "Hyphen" comes about due to his extra long hyphenated name. Topor-Stanley wears shirt number 21 at Sydney FC and plays as a left-sided stopper.

He is currently part of the Olyroos training squad aiming to represent Australia at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Sydney FC - Current Squad
1 Bolton | 2 Fyfe | 3 Ceccoli | 4 Rudan | 6 Talay | 7 Middleby | 8 Zadkovich | 9 Zdrilić | 10 Corica | 11 Petrovski | 12 Carney | 13 Brockie | 14 Brosque | 15 McFlynn | 16 Milligan | 17 Timpano | 18 Oostendorp | 20 Pasfield | 21 Topor-Stanley | Coach Butcher