Gary Cole (born 5 February 1956) is an Australian

football (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 for the Australia national football team 40 times and scored 20 goals between 1975 and 1984. He was most recently the Football director for

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 ...

club

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 ...

, made redundant in December 2012.

Playing career

Transferred from Ringwood Wilhelmina to Fitzroy Alexander (later called Heidelberg United) in 1976 for a transfer fee of 6,000 after three years at Ringwood. Cole became one of the early stars of 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 ...

as a striker, scoring 88 goals in six seasons at Heidelberg. In 1984, Cole moved to rival NSL club

Preston Lions FC Preston Lions Football Club (formerly Preston Makedonia Soccer Club) is a association football, soccer club from Preston, Victoria, Preston, a northern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The club was established in ...

after injuring his ankle badly in 1983, and went on to score 21 goals for the club before retiring in 1986. On 14 August 1981, he scored seven goals against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

, and set an Australian record for the most goals scored in an international match. His record was broken in 2001, when Archie Thompson scored 13 goals against

American Samoa American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the International ...

Coaching career

Cole has coached at various

Victorian Premier League The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer leagu ...

clubs and coached the Victorian state representative team after previously working on a full-time basis at the

AIS AIS may refer to: Medicine * Abbreviated Injury Scale, an anatomical-based coding system to classify and describe the severity of injuries * Acute ischemic stroke, the thromboembolic type of stroke * Androgen insensitivity syndrome, an intersex ...

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

. Cole was

Melbourne Victory FC 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), Victory e ...

's first director of football, commencing this role from its inaugural season in 2005 until mid 2011.

Honours

* Australian national football team 1979-1982 19 caps and 17 goals. * Victorian Representative Honours (Playing) 1974 - 1975 * Victorian Representative Honours (Coaching) 2003

References

External links

Aussie Footballers
Coates to Condon 1956 births Living people Footballers from Greater London Australian people of English descent Australian soccer players Australia international soccer players Australia B international soccer players National Soccer League (Australia) players Australian soccer coaches Association football forwards Melbourne Victory FC directors of football {{australia-footy-bio-stub