Tom Pondeljak

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Tom Pondeljak
Personal information
Date of birth	January 8, 1976
Place of birth	Melbourne, Australia
Height	1.75 m
Playing position	Attacking Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Central Coast Mariners
Number	10
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1993–95 1995–99 1999–2001 2001–03 2003–2004 2004 2005 –present	St Albans Melbourne Knights Sydney United Sydney Olympic Perth Glory Johor Central Coast Mariners.	62 (14) 97 (29) 60 (6) 63 (13) 26 (7) ?? (?) 34 (5)
National team
2002–present	Australia	4 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Tomislav Pondeljak (born January 8, 1976 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian football (soccer) player of Croatian origin who currently playing for A-league club Central Coast Mariners.

[edit] Career

Pondeljak started his career in the VIS before playing for St. Albans making 62 appearances in his 2½ year spell at the lower league Victorian club. He was then brought into the NSL by the Melbourne Knights and helping them to victory during the 1995-96 NSL season. After playing another 3½ years and a total of 97 appearances for the Melbourne club he moved to Sydney United. Not much success was had in his two years at the club eventually moved to cross town rivals Sydney Olympic. There he won his second NSL title defeating . He then moved onto Perth Glory where he won his third NSL title. Following the collapse of the NSL at the end of the 03/04 season to went to Malaysia and played for Johor. When the A-League was formed, Pondeljak was being chased by a number of teams including Sydney FC, Perth Glory, Newcastle Jets and his hometown team Melbourne Victory but it was the Central Coast Mariners who made the best offer and he accepted that offer becoming one of the marquee signings for the Mariners. The 2005/06 season was not the best for Tom as he was injured for about 2 months with a fractured and dislocated wrist. He did however produce one of the goals of the season against Sydney FC. He ran into the penalty area, turned three Sydney FC players and slotted the ball past the outstreched arm of Goalkeeper Clint Bolton. He scored the only goal of the Preliminary Final against Adelaide United to send the Central Coast Mariners into the Grand Final.

[edit] External link

• It's full speed ahead for Mariner Tom, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 10, 2005

Central Coast Mariners FC - Current Squad
1 Crawley | 3 O'Grady | 5 Porter | 6 Gumprecht | 7 Hutchinson | 8 McMaster | 9 Mrdja | 10 Pondeljak | 11 Brown | 12 Petrie | 13 Vidmar | 15 Clark | 16 Boogaard | 17 Osman | 18 Wilkinson | 19 Kwasnik | 20 Vukovic | 23 Jedinak | 30 Simon | 30 Trott | X Petrovski | X Owens | Coach McKinna