Shane Smeltz

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Personal information
Shane Smeltz
Full name	Shane Smeltz
Date of birth	September 29, 1981 (1981-09-29) (age 26)
Place of birth	Göppingen, Germany
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Wellington Phoenix
Number	9
Youth clubs
	QAS
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1998 1999-2001 2002 2002-2003 2003-2004 2005 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-	Gold Coast City Brisbane Strikers Napier City Rovers Adelaide City Adelaide United Mansfield Town AFC Wimbledon Halifax Town Wellington Phoenix	25 (14) 23 (15) 07 0(1) 05 0(0) 43 (29) 31 0(2) 14 0(9)
National team²
2003-present	New Zealand U-20 New Zealand U-23 New Zealand	19 0(9)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 16 December 2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 21 November 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Shane Smeltz (born in Göppingen, Germany on 29 September 1981) is a New Zealand football player. He plays as a striker for A-League team Wellington Phoenix.

1 Club career
2 International career
3 Honours
4 External links

[edit] Club career

Before signing for English side Halifax Town, Shane Smeltz played in 61 competitive matches for AFC Wimbledon, including 11 as a substitute, and scored 26 goals. Smeltz played for a variety of professional Australian clubs before trying his luck in England with Mansfield Town in 2005.

[edit] International career

Smeltz has played for the under 20, 23 and full New Zealand national team. In May 2007, he was the scorer of both New Zealand's goals in an impressive 2-2 draw against Wales.

He also became the first AFC Wimbledon player to win international honours, and the first to became an international goalscorer (on April 25, 2006), when he netted in an away friendly against Chile.

Following his impressive goal scoring form with the Phoenix in the A-League as well as consistent performances for the All Whites, Smeltz was voted New Zealand footballer of the year on 19th November 2007, ahead of English premier league star Ryan Nelsen and Celtic FC striker Chris Killen.