Clayton Zane (born 12 July 1977) is an Australian

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

coach and former player, who played as a striker. In the 2001 season, he was the top scorer and awarded the

Kniksen award The Kniksen Award (), established in 1990, honors the best players in the Norwegian football premiership. The award is named after the legendary Norwegian football player Roald Jensen, nicknamed "Kniksen". Categories Category A A jury comp ...

as Striker of the Year in Norway. He earned 14 caps for the Australia national team, scoring six goals. His last club as a player was

R.S.C. Anderlecht Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, commonly abbreviated to RSC Anderlecht (, , ) or RSCA (, , ), is a Belgian professional football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region. Anderlecht plays in the Belgian First Division A and is the mos ...

, where a two-year-long injury prematurely ended his career in late 2005. Following his retirement from playing Zane worked as a coach at

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australi ...

, serving as a head coach in 2014.

Club career

Zane was first brought to Europe as a relative unknown by Norwegian team

Molde Molde () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town and the seat of Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Pen ...

. After scoring no goals in 14 matches he was sold to

Lillestrøm Lillestrøm is a municipality in Akershus county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger ...

. In his first season in

he ended top scorer of the

Norwegian Premier League Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

with 17 goals and he was voted Norwegian Player of the Year some weeks later. He was then sold to Belgian club

in 2002 where he scored twice in ten games.

International career

Zane represented the Australia national team at the

2001 Confederations Cup The 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup was the fifth FIFA Confederations Cup and the third to be organized by FIFA. It was also the first in which the original hosts, Saudi Arabia, did not participate (they were the nation who founded the tournament, pr ...

and is best remembered for scoring the only goal when Australia defeated subsequent champion

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in the group stage. He scored a hat-trick for Australia against

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

in June 2000. Zane was a member of the Australian squad at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Coaching career

On 9 August 2011, it was announced that Zane had signed a contract to be the coach of the Newcastle Jets W-League team. On 8 June 2012, he was announced as the youth team coach of the Newcastle United Jets Youth Squad. In January 2014

head coach

Gary van Egmond Gary Rudy Peter van Egmond (, ; born 29 June 1965) is an Australian former soccer player and former head coach of Newcastle Jets in the A-League Men and Women. He is currently head coach of Hills United in the NSW NPL League One. Playing ...

was sacked due to poor results and Zane was appointed interim head coach until the end of the season. The club chose to appoint Phil Stubbins as head coach of the club for the following season and returned Zane to the position of 1st team assistant coach. Zane, along with goalkeeping coach Neil Young and strength & conditioning coach Andrew Packer were sacked as part of a club cleanout of players and staff. On 7 September 2016, Zane became the caretaker coach of the

after the termination of Scott Miller. Zane is regarded as well liked by the playing group and has a "Calming presence".

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Australia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Zane goal.''

Managerial statistics

Honours

Australia *

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBO ...

: 3rd place,

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

OFC Nations Cup The OFC Men's Nations Cup, known as the OFC Nations Cup before the 2024 OFC Men's Nations Cup, 2024 edition, is the primary association football competition contested by the senior list of men's national association football teams, men's natio ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Australia U-20 *

OFC U-19 Men's Championship The OFC U-19 Championship is a tournament held once every two years to decide the under-19 champions of Oceania and also decides who will represent Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) at the biennial FIFA U-20 World Cup. Between 1974 and 2012, t ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

Individual * Norwegian Premier League top scorer: 2001 *

: Striker of the Year 2001

References

External links

*
Oz Football profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zane, Clayton 1977 births Living people Soccer players from Newcastle, New South Wales Australian men's soccer players Men's association football forwards Australia men's international soccer players Australia men's under-20 international soccer players 2000 OFC Nations Cup players OFC Nations Cup–winning players Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players Olympic soccer players for Australia Kniksen Award winners National Soccer League (Australia) players Belgian Pro League players Eliteserien players Newcastle Breakers FC players North West Sydney Spirit FC players Lillestrøm SK players Molde FK players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Australian soccer managers Newcastle Jets FC managers A-League Men managers Australian expatriate men's soccer players Australian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Australian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium A-League Women managers