Jack Anthony Pelter (born 30 July 1987) is a

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 le ...

who plays as

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Metro F.C. in the

Lotto Sport Italia NRFL Premier The Northern League is a semi-professional New Zealand association football competition. It is a top-tier competition during the winter season, and sits at step two overall. The Northern League includes football clubs located in the northern p ...

. He previously played for Canterbury United,

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, Western Suburbs FC,

Vålerenga Vålerenga () is a neighbourhood in the city of Oslo, Norway, belonging to the borough of Gamle Oslo. Vålerenga is located between the neighbourhoods of Gamlebyen, Jordal, Ensjø, Etterstad and Lodalen. Vålerenga is in particular known for it ...

and Waitakere United.

Club career

New Zealand

Born in

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, England, Pelter emigrated with his family to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

at the age of eight and entered the New Zealand Football Academy whilst twelve years old. He exhibited a love for football in his school work, writing an essay on his personal hero

Roy Keane Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football pundit, coach and former professional player. He is the joint most successful Irish footballer of all time, having won 19 major trophies in his club career, 17 of which came during ...

, whilst also supporting English team Blackburn Rovers. He went on to play in 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 ...

for

Christchurch Technical Cashmere Technical is an association football club based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was formed in early 2012 from the merger of two of the city's premier teams, Cashmere Wanderers and Woolston Technical. The two clubs had agreed to work ...

Ferrymead Bays Ferrymead Bays is a semi-professional association football club based in Christchurch, New Zealand. They compete in the Mainland Premier League and they have won the league title on five occasions. Ferrymead Bays FC play their home games at Ferr ...

and Central United. He was taken back to England at the age of fifteen by

New Zealand Knights New Zealand Knights Football Club (formed from the Football Kingz Football Club in 2004) were the only professional association football club in New Zealand before they became defunct. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, they played in the A-League ...

manager Chris Turner who introduced him to the scouting teams at

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

, Chelsea and

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

. After recovering from a serious back injury on his return, Pelter moved to

New Zealand Football Championship The New Zealand Football Championship ( mi, Te Whakataetae Whutupaoro a Aotearoa) was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a m ...

team Canterbury United in 2005. Due to the

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a consid ...

nature of football in New Zealand, Pelter had to take on other jobs to finance his football regime, with his mother later commenting "After training, he'd go to work in a bar until two in the morning to fund his career, he was running, training and swimming on his own, he used to get up on cold mornings on his own to go running". The winner of Canterbury United's "Defender of the Year" award and runner-up for "Player of the Year" in only his first season with the club, Pelter subsequently attracted the attention of European clubs in 2007 following his international progress. Born in the United Kingdom, he was eligible to play for any EU club without the need for a work permit and

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

and youth contracts were offered to him by Leeds United and AC Milan amongst others.

Sunderland

He took up the offer of a trial at

in July 2007, appearing in the pre-season friendly defeat against

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

and reserve team games against

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing fr ...

and Hebburn Town. He was offered a

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

contract by the club in August but an ankle injury he had picked up during the World Cup put the deal in some doubt so he was initially offered a one-month deal, before signing a one-year contract three weeks later in September 2007 on successful completion of his medical. He was released by the club at the end of the 2007–08 season, after which he trained with

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

Vålerenga

On 31 August 2009 it was announced that Pelter had joined

Vålerenga Fotball Vålerenga Fotball () is a Norwegian association football club from Oslo and a part of the multi-sport club Vålerengens IF. Founded in 1913, the club is named after the neighbourhood of Vålerenga. Vålerenga's home ground is Intility Arena ...

in Oslo, Norway on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

. Pelter will predominately play for the B team, in the

Norwegian Second Division The Norwegian Second Division, also called 2. divisjon and often referred to as PostNord-ligaen for sponsorship reasons, is the third-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. There are 28 teams divided into two groups, and at the ...

, for the remainder of the season.

International career

Pelter has represented New Zealand at the Under-17 and Under-20 levels. He made his Under-17 debut, against

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

, in 2003. He was part of New Zealand's Under-20 World Cup 2007 squad, of which he was captain. He made his debut against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

on 8 July 2007 at the Commonwealth Stadium in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

also scored New Zealand's only goal of the tournament in that match, as they failed to progress beyond the group stages. Pelter was part of the New Zealand A team that performed in the quadrangular Agribank Cup Tournament in

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

in 2006, with every game being played at the My Dinh Stadium, eventually finishing third in the tournament that also featured

the hosts, Bahrain under 21 and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. New Zealand A were beaten 1–0 by

in their first game of the tournament on 25 October 2006, they were again beaten 1–0 by

on 27 October. New Zealand A finally gained their first and only win beating Bahrain U21 1–0 on 29 October with Leo Shin scoring the goal.

References

External links

*
Jack Pelter's profile
at NZ Soccer {{DEFAULTSORT:Pelter, Jack 1987 births Living people Footballers from Barrow-in-Furness English footballers New Zealand association footballers Association football defenders Canterbury United players Sunderland A.F.C. players Western Suburbs FC (New Zealand) players Vålerenga Fotball players Waitakere United players Metro F.C. players New Zealand expatriate association footballers Expatriate footballers in Norway Footballers from Cumbria