Stefano Mautone (born 10 August 1970) is an Australian

association football 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 ...

coach with

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), Victor ...

in the A-League. Mautone was initially recruited by Melbourne Victory to assume responsibility for training their goalkeepers

Michael Theoklitos Michael Theo (formerly Theoklitos) (born 11 February 1981) is an Australian goalkeeper who is the goalkeeping coach at A-League club Western United FC. Career Early career Theoklitos began his career as a young lad playing in the Victorian ...

and Eugene Galekovic. He has been responsible for training and developing former Melbourne Victory goalkeepers Michael Petkovic, Sebastian Mattei, Michael Theoklitos, Eugene Galekovic, Glen Moss and Mitch Langerak whilst they were respectively playing at the Victory. In 2008–09 and 2009–10 season, Mautone was assistant coach with Melbourne Victory's National Youth League team, working alongside Mehmet Durakovic. Mautone has recently relinquished this position to concentrate on the Victo

Club career

After completing a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport, Steve's professional career began quietly in 1989, when as an 18-year-old he made eight appearances for

Blacktown City Blacktown City Council is a local government area in Western Sydney, situated on the Cumberland Plain, approximately west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1906 as the Blackt ...

in the National Soccer League as an understudy to Bill Londos. He made the switch to

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 sev ...

the following season, serving another apprenticeship to Alex McPherson. Mautone returned to regional Victoria in 1992, taking up a contract with

Morwell Falcons Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne. Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the . It is both the seat of local governme ...

, firstly in the

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 lea ...

in 1992, and ultimately securing the first team spot in the senior squad for the club's inaugural season in the National Soccer League. In two seasons with the Gippsland-based club, Mautone proved outstanding, not missing a single league game, and his performances led to a move to Victorian rivals

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at ...

. The following season Mautone signed for the newly formed Canberra Cosmos, where he played 20 of 24 league games before a move to England with London-based

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

club

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

beckoned. Following a loan spell with

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

, he made his League debut for the Hammers in September 1996, keeping a clean sheet against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. He was then loaned out to

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

, where he became a fans favourite, eventually signing for the club in March 1997 in a deal worth £250,000. He made 34 appearances in all competitions for Reading before eventually being released from his contract. Mautone spent the 1999–2000 season making a handful of appearances at various clubs, including

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

and Gillingham. He eventually moved to non-league

Slough Town Slough Town Football Club is a semi-professional English football club based in Slough, Berkshire. Nicknamed "The Rebels", the team competes in the National League South, at the sixth tier of English football, following promotion from the Sou ...

where he spent a couple of seasons and made over 50 appearances before eventually returning to Australia to pursue his coaching career.

Coaching career

Mautone served as goalkeeping coach of

for nine years, before departing on 22 May 2015 in order to spend more time with his young family.

References

External links

Melbourne Victory profile

Gillingham FC profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mautone, Steve 1970 births Living people People from Myrtleford Australian soccer players Soccer players from Sydney Association football goalkeepers Premier League players National Soccer League (Australia) players Blacktown City FC players Parramatta FC players Gippsland Falcons players South Melbourne FC players West Ham United F.C. players Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Reading F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Slough Town F.C. players Melbourne Victory FC players Australian expatriate soccer players Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England