Carlton Soccer Club is a defunct Australian

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

(soccer) club. It participated in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

from the 1997–98 season until round eight of the 2000–01 season, after which it folded. The club was strongly linked to the Australian rules football club Carlton, and suffered from poor crowds. It was suspected that these ties stopped crowds from growing as supporters of other Australian rules teams would not support the Carlton Soccer Club. On the field, Carlton had a successful debut season, coming runner up to

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip Local government ...

. They were unable to make the finals the next year, but bounced back in season 1999–2000, being beaten in the Preliminary Final by eventual champion

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near w ...

. This would prove to be their last full season, as Carlton's financial woes forced the withdrawal of the side from the 2000–01 season after eight rounds. Former players include former

Socceroos The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated ...

team members Mark Bresciano, Vince Grella,

Archie Thompson Archie Gerald Thompson (born 23 October 1978) is an Australian former professional footballer. He also is serving as a club ambassador for Melbourne Victory FC. Born in New Zealand, Thompson played youth football at the New South Wales Institu ...

, Joshua Kennedy, Simon Colosimo, Andrew Marth,

Dean Anastasiadis Dean Anastasiadis (born 6 June 1970 in Melbourne, Australia) is a former Australian football (soccer) player. Biography A goalkeeper, he played for many years at a variety of clubs in the National Soccer League. This included being part of ...

, John Markovski, Steve Horvat and

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competit ...

players Daniel Allsopp, Robbie Middleby and Andrew Packer. It was once reported that the former owners of the club, headed by sports agent Peter Jess, were still receiving significant payments when former Carlton players transfer between clubs in Europe. Like their sister AFL club, the club was sponsored by American sportswear company Nike.

Honours

* National Youth League (1) – 1999–2000

Records

* Record Games Holder:

– 92 * Record Goals Holder: Alex Moreira – 27

References

Defunct soccer clubs in Australia Association football clubs established in 1997 Association football clubs disestablished in 2000 National Soccer League (Australia) teams Soccer clubs in Melbourne 1997 establishments in Australia 2000 disestablishments in Australia Italian-Australian culture in Melbourne Italian-Australian backed sports clubs of Victoria {{Australia-footyclub-stub