Scott Kenneth Chipperfield (born 30 December 1975) is an Australian former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Wollongong Wolves,

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

, FC Aesch and the Australia national soccer team. His

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

profile describes him "as a talented attacker with great physical ability and an eye for goal." He is also known for his versatility in playing in both right and left

midfield In many sports, midfield is the part of a sports field that is near the line that is equally far from the end lines. That is, in American football it is the part of the field near the 50-yard line; in association football (soccer) and field hoc ...

and as a left sided defender.

Personal life

Chipperfield was born to Kenneth and Dale Chipperfield in

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. He is of English descent and holds dual Australian-Swiss citizenship, having lived in Switzerland since signing for

in 2001. As a boy, Chipperfield supported

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. During his playing days at Wollongong he worked as a school bus driver part-time. His son,

Liam Liam is a short form of the Germanic name William, or its Irish variant Uilliam. Etymology The original name was a merging of two Old German elements: ''willa'' ("will" or "resolution"); and ''helma'' ("helmet"). The juxtaposition of these ...

is also a professional footballer who plays for the Swiss club

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

Club career

Chipperfield began playing soccer at the age of six with Bellambi. In 1993, he started his senior career, winning the Illawarra First Division grand final with Tarrawanna in his only year at the club. He joined Fernhill in the Illawarra Premier League in 1994. After two seasons at Fernhill, Chipperfield joined Illawarra Lions for one season in the

NSW Super League The Football NSW League is an Australian soccer league based in New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It b ...

Wollongong Wolves

Chipperfield began his professional career at Wollongong Wolves in 1996 and was a vital member of the team that won 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 ...

twice in a row, in 2000 and 2001, and the Oceania Club Championship in 2001. He scored the winning goal in the final of the Oceania Club Championship, as Wollongong Wolves defeated

Tafea Tafea is the southernmost of the six Provinces of Vanuatu, provinces of Vanuatu. The name is an acronym for the five main islands that make up the province: Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango and Aniwa. History Unlike the other provinces of V ...

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

1–0. He twice won the Johnny Warren Medal for the most outstanding player in the Australian domestic season and gained interest from European clubs. He had an unsuccessful trial at English First Division side

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

in the winter of 2000. In early June 2001, Perth Glory announced that Chipperfield would be joining them for the 2001–02 NSL season, however he signed for FC Basel before his Wollongong Wolves contract expired at the end of the month.

FC Basel

In the summer of 2001 Chipperfield joined

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

club

. He helped Basel win the league title (their first in 22 years) and the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

in his first season in Switzerland. The following season, he was an important member of the team as Basel reached the Second Group Stage of the

2002–03 UEFA Champions League The 2002–03 UEFA Champions League was the 11th season of UEFA's premier European club association football, football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since its rebranding in 1992, and the 48th European Cup tournament overall. The competi ...

, notching up wins against

MŠK Žilina MŠK Žilina () is a Slovak football club based in the town of Žilina, that is playing in the Slovak First Football League. Since the league inception in 1993, the club has won 7 titles and comes second in All-time table that makes them one o ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

, Spartak Moscow,

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña () or simply Depor, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, that competes in the Segunda División, the ...

and

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

on the way. In 2003, he won his second gold medal in the Swiss Cup. In the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and 2005 seasons he won his second and third League Championship titles with the club. In the summer of 2006, Chipperfield was subject to an unsuccessful bid by

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Charlton, south-east London, England. The team compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Their home ground is ...

to obtain his services, but Basel soon announced that he had signed a three-year contract extension. At the end of this season Chipperfield played in the Cup Final in the Stade de Suisse and he received his third Cup Medal as Basel beat

FC Luzern Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (). It is best known for its professional association football, football team, which plays in the Swiss Super League, Super League, the top tier of the ...

1–0. Chipperfield won the national

Double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

for the second time in 2008, it was his fourth Cup title and his fourth League title. As Basel qualified for the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, after a six-year absence, in 2008, Chipperfield was one of only three survivors of the squad that competed in the competition in 2003, the other two being Ivan Ergić and Benjamin Huggel. On 13 September 2008, he came on as a substitute for Orhan Mustafi during Basel's 2–0 defeat of FC Luzern at St. Jakob-Park, to make his 200th league appearance for Basel. He also scored the second goal of the match. In January 2009, he was set to sign for

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC () or Hertha Berlin, is a German professional football club based in Berlin. Hertha BSC plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football league system, German footbal ...

of the German Bundesliga, but the move fell through on the advice of medical staff. At the end of the 2009–10 season and 2009–10 Cup campaign Chipperfield achieved his third Double with the club. In April 2011 the club announced a further one-year contract extension. To that date he had played 367 competition games for the club, scoring 83 goals. At the end of the 2010–11 season Chipperfield won his sixth League Championship title. In the 2011–12 FC Basel season Chipperfield suffered injuries and therefore only played five games in the League season 2011–12 and three in the Swiss Cup 2011–12, scoring his only goal of the season in the first round away tie against FC Eschenbach on 17 September. Chipperfields last game was in the 1:1 away draw on 11 December 2011 against

Neuchâtel Xamax Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel. Since the fusion in 2021 of the municipalities of Neuchâtel, Corcelles-Cormondrèche, Peseux, and Valangin, the city has ap ...

. At the end of the 2011–12 season he won his fourth

, the League Championship title and the

with Basel. On 18 May 2012 FC Basel announced on their homepage that the contract with Chipperfield would not be extended. At the end of their 2011–12 season Chipperfield retired from his professional career and moved to local amateur club FC Aesch as player-coach. Between the years 2001 and 2012 Chipperfield played a total of 486 games for the club scoring 106 times. 270 of these games were in the domestic league, 37 in the Cup, 78 in the European competitions and 101 were friendly games. He scored 69 goals in the domestic league, 8 in the cup, 8 in the European competitions and the other 21 were netted during the test games. He is the Basel all-time record holder of titles with the club, with seven Swiss Nationalliga A/Super League and six

honours.

FC Aesch

On 1 June 2012 it was announced he had signed a short-term contract to play for Illawarra Premier League club Tarrawanna Blueys FC. Nevertheless, after a few weeks a move to the Swiss club FC Aesch was revealed by various media and confirmed.

International career

Chipperfield played his debut game for the Australia national team in the Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane as a substitute during the 3–1 win against

Fiji Fiji, 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 of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

on 25 September in the 1998 Oceania Nations Cup. He scored his first goal for the national team in the game against the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

just three days later, it was the eleventh goal of the game as Australia won 16–0. He is perhaps best known in Australia for his loyal and somewhat unexpected appearance at the 2002 OFC Nations Cup in New Zealand, a tournament which was marred by the financial turmoil of the then Soccer Australia. The non-existent financial contribution meant that the Australian players had to pay their own way to get to New Zealand. Chipperfield became the only one of Australia's large Europe-based contingent to answer the call and perform for his country in their time of need. Chipperfield was part of the team that defeated

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of 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 the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

in a

playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

in November 2005 to qualify for the

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

in Germany, and was named in Australia's final 23-man squad. At the tournament, Chipperfield played an integral role in the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

midfield and defence; he was considered to be one of Australia's best players. On 12 October 2009, Chipperfield announced his intention to retire from the national team immediately after the

. After the final group game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup against

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

, which Australia won 2–1, Chipperfield announced his retirement from international football.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Australia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Chipperfield goal.''

Honours

Wollongong Wolves *

: 1999–2000, 2000–01 * Oceania Club Championship: 2000–01 Basel *

: 2001–02, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2011–12 *

: 2001–02, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2011–12 Australia *

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBO ...

: 3rd place,

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

OFC Nations Cup The OFC Men's Nations Cup, known as the OFC Nations Cup before the 2024 OFC Men's Nations Cup, 2024 edition, is the primary association football competition contested by the senior list of men's national association football teams, men's natio ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

; runner-up

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

AFC–OFC Challenge Cup The AFC–OFC Challenge Cup was a football tournament, set up as the successor of the discontinued Afro-Asian Cup of Nations. It was a biannual event, with Oceania represented by the winners of the OFC Nations Cup and Asia Asia ( , ...

: runner-up

Individual * Johnny Warren Medal: 1999–2000, 2000–01 * Joe Marston Medal: 2000 *

Player of the Season: 2003–04, 2009–10 *

Football Federation Australia Hall of Fame The aims of the Football Australia Hall of Fame (founded in 1999 as the Soccer Hall of Fame) are to celebrate and highlight the achievements of retired players and other participants who have contributed significantly to the game. These are ma ...

: 2012 * FFA Team of the Decade: 2000–13 * FFA Team of the Century

References

External links

Oz Football profile
*
Profile at FC Basel

Profile at Swiss Football League Website
*
Then Scott Chipperfield Went Bald Swiss Football Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chipperfield, Scott 1975 births Living people Soccer players from Wollongong Australian men's soccer players Australia men's international soccer players Australian people of English descent FC Basel players Wollongong Wolves FC players Australian expatriate men's soccer players Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Australian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Australian emigrants to Switzerland Naturalised citizens of Switzerland 1998 OFC Nations Cup players 2000 OFC Nations Cup players 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2002 OFC Nations Cup players 2004 OFC Nations Cup players OFC Nations Cup–winning players 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players 2010 FIFA World Cup players Swiss Super League players National Soccer League (Australia) players Men's association football midfielders Wollongong United FC players