Gerald Sibon (born 19 April 1974) is a retired Dutch footballer who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He is the current performance coach 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 Adelaide United.

Club career

Europe

He featured for FC Twente in the 1993–94 season as a substitute but could only string together three games before deciding to sign for VVV-Venlo of the Eerste Divisie in the following season. After two successful seasons playing for VVV where he scored 34 goals, he joined Roda JC in 1996 and impressed with 13 goals back in the top-flight, and also scored as Roda JC won the

1997 KNVB Cup Final The 1997 KNVB Cup Final was a football match between Roda JC and Heerenveen on 8 May 1997 at De Kuip, Rotterdam. It was the final match of the 1996–97 KNVB Cup competition and the 79th KNVB Cup final. Roda won 4–2 after goals from Gerald Sibo ...

. Sibon moved to

Ajax Amsterdam Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

in 1997 but was frustrated and hampered by a lack of first team action, having been relegated to the bench by the likes of

Wamberto Wamberto de Jesus Sousa Campos (born 13 December 1974) is a Brazilian former footballer who last played as a forward and as a midfielder. He notably represented AFC Ajax and Standard Liége. He was also nicknamed ''Wampie'' by Ajax supporters. ...

, Shota Arveladze, Georgi Kinkladze and crowd favourite Brian Laudrup. An offer by English Premiership club Sheffield Wednesday prompted Sibon to transfer to the Yorkshire club in 1999 for the price of £2 million. Joining him at Sheffield Wednesday were Dutch international Wim Jonk and the Belgian Gilles De Bilde. After spending four seasons with Sheffield Wednesday, where he scored 43 goals overall for the club and was the club's highest goal scorer for three consecutive seasons, also winning two consecutive player of the year awards, he decided to return to the Eredivisie and joined SC Heerenveen in January 2003. He featured for Heerenveen in 38 matches and scored 19 goals in two seasons before signing for PSV in 2004. He won the Dutch Eredivise title in 2004–05, contending with Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Robert for a first team spot. In July 2006 he joined Bundesliga side

Nürnberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ci ...

on a free transfer. He left the club one year later, signing a two-year contract with his old team Heerenveen.

Australia

Sibon left the Netherlands in May 2010, when he signed with Australian

club Melbourne Heart for their inaugural season, coached by fellow Dutchman John van 't Schip. He quickly cemented his position in the starting line-up, playing mainly in a

playmaker In association football, a playmaker is a player who controls the flow of the team's play, and is often involved in offensively and defensively playing passing moves which lead to goals, through their vision, technique, ball control, creativit ...

role, but still managing to show his skills as a striker by scoring seven goals, Melbourne Heart's second top-scorer for the season. He became a fan favourite for his often-dangerous free-kicks, including a goal from a stunning 20-metre curling free kick, during the second ever Melbourne Derby. In the week before the Heart's final game of the season, Sibon announced he would not be continuing his career with the club. He was told he would not be offered a contract renewal, likely to his disappointment, after having stated earlier in the month that he wanted to spend another year in Melbourne.

Back to Europe

On 27 June 2011, it was announced Sibon had signed with his former team SC Heerenveen thus beginning his third stint at the club. The final match of his career was the May 2012 defeat by Feyenoord which curiously sealed Europa League football for Heerenveen.

International career

In the summer of 2008, Sibon was named in the Netherlands squad for the Beijing Olympics. He scored a 93rd-minute equaliser in the 2–2 draw against the United States and the winning penalty in the 73rd minute against Japan. This placed him amongst 18 players who scored two goals or more in the tournament.

Honours

Roda JC *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

: 1996–97 Ajax * Eredivisie: 1997–98 *

: 1997–98, 1998–99 PSV Eindhoven * Eredivisie: 2004–05, 2005–06 *

: 2004–05 1. FC Nürnberg * DFB-Pokal: 2006–07 Heerenveen *

: 2008–09

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sibon, Gerald 1974 births Living people Association football forwards Dutch footballers Dutch expatriate footballers AFC Ajax players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players PSV Eindhoven players Roda JC Kerkrade players 1. FC Nürnberg players VVV-Venlo players FC Twente players SC Heerenveen players Melbourne City FC players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Premier League players English Football League players Bundesliga players A-League Men players Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate soccer players in Australia Olympic footballers of the Netherlands Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Marquee players (A-League Men) Footballers from Emmen, Netherlands SC Heerenveen non-playing staff