Josip Skoko (born 10 December 1975) is an Australian former professional

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, rugb ...

who played as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

North Geelong Warriors North Geelong Warriors Football Club, formerly known as North Geelong Croatia, is an Australian semi-professional soccer club from the regional Victorian city of Geelong. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, Aust ...

Hajduk Split Hrvatski nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split () or simply Hajduk, is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 197 ...

Genk Genk () is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality only comprises the town of Genk itself. It is one of the most important industrial towns in Flanders, located on the Albert Canal, ...

, Gençlerbirliği,

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

and Melbourne Heart. Skoko has been described as a central midfielder with "superb on-ball ability, inch perfect passing, and his ability to turn defence to attack in an instant." Skoko is currently the Director of Football at

North Geelong Warriors FC North Geelong Warriors Football Club, formerly known as North Geelong Croatia, is an Australian semi-professional soccer club from the regional Victorian city of Geelong. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, Aust ...

Club career

Early career

Skoko was born in Mount Gambier, he played for Mt Gambier Croatia until he was 9 years old when he and his family moved to

Geelong Geelong ( ) ( Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the south eastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon ...

. Skoko played for

before moving to Croatian side

in 1995. After four years at

Stadion Poljud Gradski stadion u Poljudu ( en, City Stadium in Poljud), better known as Stadion Poljud ( en, Poljud Stadium) or simply Poljud, is a multi-use stadium in Split, Croatia, which has been the home ground of Hajduk Split football club since 1979. ...

he signed for Belgium club

. At Genk he was made captain and helped the team win the title in 2001–02. He joined Turkish club Gençlerbirliği in 2003 where he spent two years before moving to English football.

Wigan Athletic

Skoko joined

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

for €1 million at the beginning of the 2005–06 season, although he initially failed to maintain a regular place in the first team. On 7 January 2006 Skoko signed for

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

side

on loan until the end of the 2005–06 season. He played nine times for Stoke and scored twice against

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

and

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 ...

. In the 2006–07 season, Paul Jewell showed renewed faith in Skoko giving him an extended run in the side. The transfers of

Jimmy Bullard James Richard Bullard (born 23 October 1978) is an English former professional footballer, coach and television personality. He is the co-host of the Saturday morning Sky Sports show '' Soccer AM''. As a player he was a midfielder and played y ...

and Graham Kavanagh to

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswor ...

and

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 ...

, respectively, in the summer of 2006 left a gap in Wigan's midfield and this led to him becoming a mainstay in the Wigan Athletic midfield, partnering

Paul Scharner Paul Josef Herbert Scharner (born 11 March 1980) is an Austrian retired footballer. He operated mainly as a defender, although he could play almost every midfield position as well. He was known for his great positional versatility and haircuts ...

and Denny Landzaat. He signed a new contract deal keeping him at Wigan until 2008. However, at the end of the season it became clear that Skoko had played his last game for the club. The two main reasons were because he did not play enough games for Wigan to trigger a clause in his contract and also the impossibility of receiving a visa for his stay in England due to his international retirement with Australia. It was decided in May 2008 that Skoko's contract would not be renewed and he was subsequently released by Wigan.

Hajduk Split

Due to various work permit issues when playing in Europe, it took a longer than expected time for Skoko to put pen to paper with a club of his choice. However, on 21 July, and after several weeks of speculation, Skoko had finally signed a two-year deal with former club Hajduk. The decision, he said, took only minutes for the club and himself to agree terms. Skoko is relishing the chance to return to the side he made more than 100 appearances for between 1995 and 1999, with a club he describes as "a second home".

Melbourne Heart

Skoko's return home to Australia to play 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 ...

newcomers Melbourne Heart was confirmed by the club on 19 May 2010. The club signed the former Socceroo for one season as their inaugural Australian marquee player. He was also named as one of the initial members of the leadership group. In his second game for Melbourne Heart, he suffered a hamstring injury, which forced him out of the side for at least one month. In February 2012, Skoko came out of retirement to take part in the 2012 Hawaiian Island Invitational before retiring for good.

International career

Skoko was a member of the Australia senior team for ten years, from 1997 to 2007. He made his debut for Australia against Macedonia in 1997 and was a mainstay of the ''Socceroos'' side from then on, participating in two World Cup qualifying campaigns. He also represented his country at the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

in 2000. In November 2005, Skoko came on as a substitute in Australia's playoff victory over

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

to qualify for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

. He also captained a weakened Australian side against

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and a ...

in an

Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second oldest cont ...

qualifier in 2006. On 25 May 2006, Skoko scored a cracking volley from 25m for Australia in a 1-0 friendly victory over

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

in front of 95,103 spectators at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern ...

, which he regards as "the most legendary moment of all time". He was selected in the squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany but did not play in any of Australia's four games. After being named in the Australian side for a friendly match against

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

on 11 September 2007, Skoko stated that the game would be his home farewell from international football. Skoko ended his international career 51 minutes into the match in Melbourne when he was replaced by midfielder

Carl Valeri Carl may refer to: * Carl, Georgia, city in USA * Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name * Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of ...

Career statistics

Club

:Source:

International

Honours

Genk * Belgian First Division: 2001–02 *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

: 1999–2000

References

External links

*
Melbourne Heart profile
*

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skoko, Josip 1975 births Living people People from Mount Gambier, South Australia Association football midfielders Australian soccer players Australian expatriate soccer players Australia international soccer players Australian people of Croatian descent Olympic soccer players of Australia Premier League players English Football League players Belgian First Division A players Croatian Football League players Süper Lig players North Geelong Warriors FC players Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers HNK Hajduk Split players K.R.C. Genk players Stoke City F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Melbourne City FC players Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Croatia Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Australian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Australian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Australian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Sportspeople from Geelong Soccer players from Victoria (Australia) Australian Institute of Sport soccer players Melbourne City FC non-playing staff Marquee players (A-League Men) 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup players Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2004 OFC Nations Cup players 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players