Shannon Cole (born 4 August 1984) is a former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

turned coach.

Club career

Cole's early football career saw a series of stints with NSW state league clubs, in particular APIA Leichhardt, Dulwich Hill,

Rockdale City Suns Rockdale Ilinden Football Club (formerly known as the Rockdale City Suns Football Club from 1992 to 2020) is an Australian Macedonian soccer club based in Sydney suburb of Rockdale. Founded in 1969, the club competes in the highest men's comp ...

and

Parramatta Eagles Parramatta Football Club, commonly known as Parramatta Melita Eagles or just Melita, are a semi-professional Australian soccer club based in South Granville, New South Wales. The club was established by Maltese migrants in 1956 and played seve ...

. He also left Australia for spells in US college football in the tiny

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

town of Northville and semi-professional football with

Waitakere United Waitakere United was a football club based in Waitakere City, New Zealand. They were one of the franchises in the ISPS Handa Premiership. They played their home games at Fred Taylor Park in Kumeu and The Trusts Arena. History Waitakere United ...

in New Zealand. Following this, Cole spent a month trialling with ambitious English Championship side

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at T ...

, before spending a stint with Israeli side

Maccabi Netanya Maccabi Netanya F.C. ( he, מועדון כדורגל מכבי נתניה, ''Football Club Maccabi Netanya'') is an Israeli football club based in Netanya. Established in 1934, the club was a founding member of the Israeli League in 1949. Aft ...

. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in July 2008, Cole reflected on these early globetrotting stages of his career: "With the college football, I had a friend over there already, so I went over for the year when I was 19 and it was just something I wanted to try, living away from home and live as a footballer. I kind of saw it as a personal challenge. Going to Europe was also great, but I don't have an EU passport at the moment and it made it difficult to get a deal. Being full-time with Doncaster, even for a month, was a great experience. The standard in Israel was also really high and there were a lot of really good, strong African boys there, but Netanya were looking for a senior player to come in and run the midfield, and I was just 22, so it didn't work out."Cole takes scenic route to the top flight
/ref> Cole signed with NSW Premier League club

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The Club was founded as Pan-Hellenic Soccer Club in 1957 by Greek immigran ...

in 2007. During his time there, Cole was a member of the Sydney Olympic team that lifted the 2008 NSW Premier League Johnny Warren Cup, after a 2–1 extra time win in the final against the Sutherland Sharks. Cole provided the assist from a free kick for Olympic's first goal in this game, scored by Emmanuel Giannaros in the 52nd minute.

Sydney FC

On 15 August 2008 he was signed by

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was ...

on a two-year contract from

. Chosen mainly because of his ability to play at left and right back or midfield. On 23 August 2008, Cole scored a free kick against

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The ...

that curled over the wall into the bottom corner to put Sydney in the lead 3–2. This proved to be the winning goal. Another goal the next week against

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...

cemented his position in the team. In December he scored his third goal for Sydney in their 3–2 loss to

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victo ...

. His goal was the first of the match, just less than 30 seconds into the game. In

2010–11 A-League The 2010–11 A-League was the 34th season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the sixth season of the Australian A-League soccer competition since its establishment in 2004. The home and away season began on 5 August 2010 and concluded on ...

, Cole scored a spectacular free-kick goal against

Sydney Football Stadium The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. Built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the stadium was Sydney's premier rect ...

in Round 1 of Grand Final Replay on 7 August 2010. He scored again in Round 8 Mid-Week Fixture with a spectacular goal outside from penalty box against

North Queensland Fury Northern Fury Football Club was an Australian professional soccer club based in Townsville, Queensland. The club was founded in 2008 and competed in the A-League under the name North Queensland Fury. On 1 March 2011, the club was removed from th ...

. Cole scored again, this time he ran past the defenders of

to slide the ball past

Tando Velaphi Tando Yuji Velaphi (born 17 April 1987) is an Australian professional football player who plays as a goalkeeper for Kochi United. Club career Early playing career Velaphi trained at the AIS in Canberra on a football scholarship. Perth SC ...

in Round 15 then later did a spectacular acrobatic jump.

Western Sydney Wanderers FC

On 30 June 2012, it was officially announced he had joined the newly formed

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premie ...

club. After being at the club since it was formed, Cole announced that he would leave after 5 years.

International career

On 1 October 2008 was called up from Socceroos coach

Pim Verbeek Peter Tim Dirk "Pim" Verbeek (12 March 1956 – 28 November 2019) was a Dutch football manager who last coached the Oman national football team. Playing career As a player, Verbeek was a defender or a midfielder and spent his entire career at S ...

for the

Australia national football team Australia national soccer team may refer to: * Australia men's national soccer team ** Australia men's national under-23 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-20 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-17 soccer team ** Australia ...

for a training camp, he was not promoted for the 22 squad against

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

. His second call was on 19 January 2009 against

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and played 73 minutes in his debut.Shannon makes Australian debut – Sydney Olympic FC

Honours

Sydney FC * A-League Premiership: 2009–10 * A-League Championship: 2009–10 Western Sydney Wanderers * A-League Premiership:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Individual *

2014 AFC Champions League The 2014 AFC Champions League was the 33rd edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 12th under the current AFC Champions League title. Guangzhou Evergrande were the def ...

All Star

References

External links

Western Sydney Wanderers profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Shannon 1985 births A-League Men players Western Sydney Wanderers FC players Parramatta FC players Sydney Olympic FC players Sydney FC players Sydney United 58 FC players Living people Soccer players from Sydney Western Sydney University alumni People educated at St Patrick's College, Strathfield Association football midfielders Association football fullbacks Australian soccer players Australia international soccer players