Stan Lazaridis

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Stanley "Stan" Lazaridis (born August 16, 1972 in Perth, Australia), was an Australian football (soccer) player of Greek descent. He was predominantly a left winger though he had been known to perform at at left-back. He last played for his home-town club, Perth Glory and made 58 official appearances for Australia and was called up to the Australian 2006 FIFA World Cup squad though he never played in Germany.

[edit] Club career

His reputation as a young left-footed teenager began with Olympic Kingsway where, despite his age, he intimidated many a defender with his extraordinary change of pace. ^[1] Born and raised in Perth, Australia. Lazaridis made his senior debut for West Adelaide Hellas in the Australian National Soccer League in the 1992 season. His dashing runs and lightning pace drew much attentions on the Australian scene. At the end of the 1995 season he got his big move to Europe when Harry Redknapp paid £300,000 to sign him for Premier League side West Ham United. A poor debut and consistent injury problems made his debut season at West Ham difficult.

Over four seasons, Lazaridis, played just 87 games for West Ham United leading to him dropping down a division to sign for Birmingham City in the Summer of 1999. Settling much better at St. Andrews, he played an important role in guiding the team up to the Premiership for 2002/03.

Following promotion (and despite a raft of new signings) Lazaridis remained a regular player for the Blues, notably scoring the winner against hated rivals Aston Villa in March 2003 and a classic goal against Everton in February 2004. After 7 successful years at Birmingham City, in which he'd become a true hero of the fans, Lazaridis was released at the end of the 2005-06 season by Birmingham City after making 222 appearances for the club. He then looked to finish his career in Australia with A-League club Perth Glory.

Lazaridis made only 11 appearances for the Perth club in 2006/07, much to the derision of the supporters. Unfortunately his time with Perth was tainted when in January 2007, Lazaridis returned a positive drug test for anti-androgen Finasteride, a prescription alopecia medication, which is banned due to its potential as a masking agent for other performance-enhancing substances.^[2] While noting his previous good character and making clear there was no evidence he had taken performance enhancing drugs, he was found guilty by Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and was given a 12-Month suspension from football. ^[3] In March 2008 Perth Glory manager David Mitchell cut Lazaridis from the clubs A-League roster.

[edit] Honours

With Australia:

• FIFA Confederations Cup: 1997 (Runners-Up)
• OFC Nations Cup: 2000

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Lazaridis cut loose by Glory
• Oz Football profile
• Football Database profile
• Stan Lazaridis career stats at Soccerbase
• The Wonderful World of West Ham United Statistics

v • d • e Australia squad - 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Muscat • 3 Moore • 4 Okon • 5 Vidmar • 6 Popovic • 7 Lazaridis • 8 Skoko • 9 Aloisi • 10 Emerton • 11 Zdrilic • 12 Bolton • 13 Bresciano • 14 Murphy • 15 Foxe • 16 Horvat • 17 Corica • 18 Chipperfield • 19 Vidmar • 20 Zane • 21 Thompson • 22 Sterjovski • 23 Jurić • Coach: Farina

v • d • e Australia squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Neill • 3 Moore • 4 Cahill • 5 Culina • 6 Popovic • 7 Emerton • 8 Skoko • 9 Viduka • 10 Kewell • 11 Lazaridis • 12 Covic • 13 Grella • 14 Chipperfield • 15 Aloisi • 16 Beauchamp • 17 Thompson • 18 Kalac • 19 Kennedy • 20 Wilkshire • 21 Sterjovski • 22 Milligan • 23 Bresciano • Coach: Hiddink