Paul Okon

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Paul Okon
Personal information
Full name	Paul Okon
Date of birth	April 5, 1972
Place of birth	Sydney, Australia
Height	177cm
Nickname	Paul
Position	Defender/Defensive Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Newcastle United Jets
Number	12
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1989–91 1991–96 1996–99 1999–00 2000–02 2002 2003 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–present	Marconi Stallions Club Brugge Lazio Fiorentina Middlesbrough Watford (loan) Leeds United Vicenza Oostende Apoel Nicosia Newcastle Jets	49 (4) 72 (1) 19 (0) 11 (0) 30 (0) 15 (0) 21 (0) 11 (0) 33 (0) ?? (?) 12 (0)
National team
1991-03	Australia	29 (0)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of November 19, 2006.

Paul Okon (born April 5, 1972 in Sydney) is an Australian football (soccer) player currently with Australian side Newcastle United Jets. Okon grew up in the Sydney suburb of Bossley Park. He previously captained the Australian National Team and has represented Australian National Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Okon's career began at Marconi Stallions in the old NSL in Australia. He then went on to play at many European clubs including S.S. Lazio and Fiorentina in Italy's Serie A, Vicenza Calcio in Serie B, Middlesbrough F.C. and Leeds United F.C. in the English Premiership, Club Brugge, K.V. Oostende in Belgium's Jupiler League and APOEL FC in the Παγκύπριο Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας (Cyprus).

Okon represented his high school, Patrician Brothers' College, Fairfield during his time as a teenage schoolboy and featured prominently in all teams including the A Grade squad. However, his abilities did not stop at the football pitch. He set the record for high jump at the College's annual Athletics Carnival in the under 16s age group which was not broken until 2004.

Worth noting; Paul Okon was childhood friend with Italian striker Christian Vieri, who grew up in Australia.

[edit] Honours

• Belgian League (1995)
• Belgian Cup (1995, 1996)

• Belgian League Player of the Year (1995)
• Oceanian Player of the Year (1996)
• NSL Young Player of the year (1989)

• He signed with A-League club Newcastle United Jets for the 2006-07 season.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Newcastle Jets: Paul Okon player profile".

Preceded by Gilles De Bilde	Belgian Golden Shoe 1995	Succeeded by Franky Van Der Elst
Preceded by Christian Karembeu	Oceania Player of the Year 1996	Succeeded by Mark Bosnich

Newcastle United Jets - Current Squad
1 Necevski | 2 Eagleton | 3 North | 4 Deans | 5 Rodriguez | 6 Durante | 7 Faria | 8 Thompson | 9 Coveny | 10 Carle | 11 Elrich | 12 Okon | 13 D'Apuzzo | 14 Wheelhouse | 15 Musialik | 16 Haliti | 17 Ozbey | 18 J. Griffiths | 19 Bridge | 20 Kennedy | 22 Old | 24 Kohler | 40 Čović | Manager: van Egmond