Steve Corica

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Steve Corica
Personal information
Full name	Stephen Christopher Corica
Date of birth	March 24, 1973 (1973-03-24) (age 36)
Place of birth	Innisfail, Australia
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Attacking Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Sydney FC
Number	10
Youth career
1990	Innisfail United AIS
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1990–1995 1995–1996 1996–2000 2000–2001 2001–2004 2005–present	Marconi-Fairfield Leicester City Wolverhampton Wanderers Sanfrecce Hiroshima Walsall Sydney FC	103 (14) 016 0(2) 100 0(5) 043 (14) 073 0(9) 081 (16)
National team2
1989 1990–1991 1992–1996 1993–2006	Australia U-17 Australia U-20 Australia U-23 Australia	002 0(1) 006 0(0) 007 0(0) 032 0(5)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 29 November 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 17 December 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

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 out wide, or even pushed up as a support striker. He is currently Sydney's highest goalscorer on 15 goals, after overtaking Sasho Petrovski's former record of 14 with a goal in Sydney's 5-2 demolishment of Western Australian side Perth Glory

[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 signed by their former Leicester manager Mark McGhee for Wolverhampton Wanderers in a joint £1.75 million deal (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 Wolves in 2000, moving to Japan with J. League side Sanfrecce Hiroshima for two 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

Steve Corica playing for 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 afterward. Corica had a great start to the 2008-09 A-League Season after scoring a double in the Round 2 match against Central Coast Mariners^[9].
He became Sydney's highest goalscorer after overtaking Sasho Petrovski's former record of 14, with a Penalty in Sydney's 5-2 thrashing of Perth Glory. He became Sydney's 3rd player to reach 100 professional games for the club, with their 2-1 loss to Perth Glory on November 19, 2008 at Members Equity Stadium

[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.^[10]

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.^[11] 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.

International Goals

Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Result	Competition	Scored
15/2/1995	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Japan	-	Won	Friendly	1 (1)
9/2/2000	Estadio Playa Ancha, Valparaiso, Chile	Chile	2-1	Loss	Friendly	1 (2)
19/6/2000	Papeete, Tahiti	Cook Islands	17-0	Won	Oceania Nations Cup	1 (3)
28/2/2001	Nemesio Camacho Stadium, Bogota	Colombia	3-2	Loss	Friendly	1 (4)
14/3/2001	BCU International Stadium	Fiji	2-0	Won	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)	1 (5)

[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 – 1992 Summer Olympics Fourth Place 1 Filan • 2 Blagojevic • 3 Longo • 4 Zelić • 5 Murphy • 6 Vidmar • 7 Gibson • 8 Okon • 9 Aramabasic • 10 Slifkas • 11 Markovski • 12 Mori • 13 Veart • 14 Refenes • 15 Popovic • 16 Seal • 17 Hasler • 18 Corica • 19 Maloney • 20 Bosnich • Coach: Thomson

v • d • e Australia squad – 1996 Summer Olympics 1 Jurić • 2 Lozanovski • 3 Moric • 4 Babic • 5 Muscat • 6 Horvat • 7 Tsekenis • 8 Corica • 9 Viduka • 10 Vidmar • 11 Tiatto • 12 Spiteri • 13 Foxe • 14 Agostino • 15 Casserly • 16 Enes • 17 Aloisi • 18 Petkovic • Coach: Thomson

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