Andrew Charles Clark (born 24 August 1974) is an Australian former

soccer 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 ...

player, who played as a defender. As a player, had stints in the Australian

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 ...

(NSL) 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 competiti ...

, most notably for

Canberra Cosmos Canberra Cosmos Football Club was an Australian soccer club based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. It participated in the National Soccer League from the 1995/96 season until the end of the 2000/01 season, after which it folded, primar ...

Parramatta Power Parramatta Power Soccer Club were a professional association football club who were based in the Western Sydney city of Parramatta. They played in the National Soccer League from season 1999-00 until the league folded in 2004. The Power were ...

and the

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 Ma ...

. Since the later part of his playing career, he has worked as a fitness coach, including stints with the Central Coast Mariners,

Vegalta Sendai is a Japanese professional football club, currently playing in J2 League. The team is located in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. History Founded in 1988 as ''Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. Soccer Club'', Vegalta joined the J-League in 1999 after p ...

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 fo ...

and the

Australian national soccer team 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 with ...

Early life

Clark was born in

Gosford Gosford is the city and administrative centre of the Central Coast Council local government area in the heart of the Central Coast region, about north of Sydney and about south of Newcastle. The city centre is situated at the northern extre ...

, on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

Playing career

Early years

Clark played youth football for a number of clubs on the Central Coast, including

Central Coast FC Central Coast United FC, is a semi-professional soccer club, based and located on the Central Coast of New South Wales. As of the 2022 season, the club's senior teams compete in the NSW League One competitions and the clubs youth team compete in ...

, where he played several seasons in the first team in the 1990s. In 1997, he was one of four Australians signed by Five-One-Seven to play in the

Hong Kong First Division League The Hong Kong First Division League () is the second-highest division in the Hong Kong football league system. Established in 1908, it is the third oldest in Asia. The league was formerly the highest division in Hong Kong until the formation o ...

in 1997–98. He spent the subsequent twelve years playing for a number of clubs in New South Wales, with the exception of a season in Malaysia with

Kedah FA Kedah Darul Aman Football Club ( ms, Kelab Bola Sepak Kedah Darul Aman) is a football club based in Alor Setar, Kedah, that competes in the Malaysia Super League. They are the only team in the history of Malaysian football to have won two tr ...

in the 2003

Liga Perdana 1 Liga Perdana 1 or Liga Perdana Satu ( en, Premier League 1 or Premier League One) was the nation's top-tier professional football league in Malaysia that operated from 1998 to 2003. The league was formed and established in 1998 to succeed the L ...

. Clark announced that he would be retiring as a player in February 2010, at the end of the 2009–10 Central Coast Mariners season.

Coaching career

Clark took up a position as the strength and conditioning coach at

while still a player for the club. In late 2013, it was announced that Clark would be leaving the Mariners, following former Central Coast head coach

Graham Arnold Graham James Arnold (born 3 August 1963) is an Australian soccer manager and former player. Arnold was appointed to work as an assistant coach of the Australian national soccer team in 2000. After head coach Frank Farina was sacked in 2005, Ar ...

for a position with

in the

J.League The , officially is Japan's professional football league including the first division J1 League, second division J2 League and third division J3 League of the Japanese association football league system. J1 League is one of the most successfu ...

. He left Vegalta shortly after Arnold was sacked by the club in April 2014. Clark signed on to be

's head of strength and conditioning in May 2014, again linking up with Arnold. He then moved to the Socceroos to become the head of high performance, once again following Gram Arnold. Andrew has been with the Socceroos for 4 years.

Honours

Club

: *

Premiership: 2007–08 *

A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup The A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup competition was an annual soccer tournament held for all A-League clubs in July and August in the lead up to the start of the A-League season. The competition featured a group stage and a knockout stage. Co ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

References

External links

*
Oz Football profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Andrew 1974 births Living people People from Gosford Association football central defenders Australian soccer players Australian expatriate soccer players Expatriate footballers in Malaysia Australian expatriate sportspeople in Malaysia Australian expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Expatriate footballers in Hong Kong A-League Men players National Soccer League (Australia) players Central Coast Mariners FC players Parramatta Power players Central Coast Mariners FC non-playing staff Sportsmen from New South Wales Soccer players from New South Wales