Steve Corica

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Stephen Christopher Corica (born March 24, 1973 in Innisfail, Australia) is an Australian football (soccer) player for Australian A-League team Sydney FC. Playing primarily as an attacking midfielder, he is very versatile, able to play both centrally or outwide, or even pushed up as a support striker, many people have frequently commented on his extreme temper problems. But most of those comments were put to rest by brutal beatings.

[edit] Club career

Corica started playing football in his home town of Innisfail, in Far North Queensland and joining the elite player program at the Australian Institute of Sport in 1990.^[1] On completion of the scholarship he signed with Marconi-Fairfield in the now defunct National Soccer League. In his first NSL season he made just three starts, but developed to a regular selection in following years. In 1992/93 he helped Marconi to a Grand Final win and was named Under 21 Player of the Year.^[2] The next two years were less successful for the Marconi and in 1995, Corica sought a career move to Europe.

Corica signed with Leicester City in the English First Division. He debuted for the club on 12 August 1995 and scored in a 2-1 win.^[3] Adding to his tally was harder to come by for following games, and in February Corica and fellow Australian Zeljko Kalac were sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers for a joint fee of £1.75 million (the component for Corica was £1.1m).^[4] Kalac was unable to gain a work permit for Wolves and returned to Australia, but Corica remained. In four-and-a-half seasons at Wolves, Corica made over 100 appearances, although hampered by a series of knee injuries.^[5][6]

Corica left Wolverhampton in 2000, moving to Japan with J. League side Sanfrecce Hiroshima for one season, then returning to England at Walsall. In September 2004, unable to work his way into the first team, Walsall agreed to release him.^[7]

[edit] Sydney FC

He finally decided to return home to Australia after spending 10 years abroad, joining new A-League club Sydney FC. It was a shaky start to the new competition for Corica, sent off in Sydney's third A-League match against Newcastle for a dangerous foul.^[8] After serving a one match suspension, he repaid the club scoring just five minutes in against Queensland Roar, and following up with a second goal later in the match. Corica retained a place in the side for much of the year as Sydney progressed to the Grand Final. A set-up from Dwight Yorke in the second half, gave Corica the only goal in Sydney FC's 1-0 victory over the Central Coast Mariners to help the team win the inaugural A-League Championship.

He remained with the club in 2006/07 and played a key role in Sydney's 2007 Asian Champions League campaign, scoring four goals in six matches. He is still at Sydney for the 2007/08 season. On April 1, 2008 he signed a 1 year contract to remain at Sydney, and given his age is possible he will retire afterwards.

[edit] International career

Corica has represented Australia at all youth (U17, U20, U23) and at national team level^[1], the first Australian to achieve the feat.^[9]

He represented Australia at the FIFA U-17 World Championship in Scotland in 1989. Although his team finished last in a very tough group, he did have his moments, such as scoring against Brazil in a 3-1 loss. In 1991, he was selected for the FIFA World Youth Championship in Portugal, where Australia performed remarkably well and reached the semi finals before losing to the hosts. He then went on to play in two Olympic Games football tournament, the first being the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, where Australia made another impressive run to the semi finals, this time falling to Poland at the pemultimate stage. Four years later, he was part of the 1996 Olympics team in Atlanta. He was part of a generation of Australian players (including Paul Okon, Ned Zelic, Mark Bosnich and Zeljko Kalac) dubbed the "Golden Generation".

On April 16, 1993 Corica was given his full national team debut by Eddie Thomson (former national coach) against Kuwait in a friendly match in Singapore.^[10] He then went on to play for the national team, earning over 40 caps (some in non-'A' internationals) and scoring 6 goals including appearances at the 1997 and 2001 Confederations Cups. After a five year absence from the national team, he appeared in an Asia Cup qualifier against Kuwait on August 16, 2006 as one of eight Sydney FC players called up to the national team.

[edit] Honours

With Australia:

• OFC Nations Cup: 2000

With Sydney FC:

• A-League Championship: 2005-2006
• Oceania Club Championship: 2004-2005

With Marconi-Fairfield:

• NSL Championship: 1992-1993

Personal Honours:

• Sydney FC Member's Player of the Year: 2006-2007, 2007-2008
• NSL Papasavas Medal (U-21): 1992-1993

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sydney FC profile
• Oz Football profile

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