Paul Okon

Paul Okon

Personal information
Full name	Paul Michael Okon
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Defender / Midfielder (Retired)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1989–1991	Marconi Stallions	49	(4)
1991–1996	Club Brugge	72	(1)
1996–1999	Lazio	19	(0)
1999–2000	Fiorentina	11	(0)
2000–2002	Middlesbrough	28	(1)
2002	→ Watford (loan)	15	(0)
2003	Leeds United	15	(0)
2003–2004	Vicenza	28	(2)
2004–2005	K.V. Oostende	33	(0)
2004–2006	APOEL	9	(0)
2006–2007	Newcastle Jets	17	(0)
Total		347	(9)
International career‡
1991	Australia U-20	4	(0)
1992	Australia U-23	3	(0)
1991–2003	Australia	28	(0)
Managerial career
2008–2009	APIA Leichhardt (Interim)
2009	Australia U-18
2009–2010	Gold Coast United (Assist.)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16:47, 25 February 2010 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 17:30, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Paul Okon (born 5 April 1972 in Sydney) is a former Australian football (soccer) player who retired after playing with Australian side Newcastle United Jets.

He previously captained the Australian National Team and has represented Australia Olympic Football Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Okon's career began at Marconi Stallions in the old NSL in Australia. He then went on to play at many European clubs including S.S. Lazio and Fiorentina in Italy's Serie A, Vicenza Calcio in Serie B, Middlesbrough F.C. and Leeds United F.C. in the English Premiership, Club Brugge, K.V. Oostende in Belgium's Jupiler League and APOEL FC in the Cypriot First Division. Okon was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2009, for his services to football in Australia. During his time in Belgium, Okon acquired citizenship of the country.

Club career

Okon grew up in the Sydney suburb of Bossley Park. He is of German and Italian descent. He represented his high school, Patrician Brothers' College, Fairfield during his time as a teenage schoolboy and featured prominently in all teams including the A Grade squad. However, his abilities did not stop at the football pitch. He set the record for high jump at the College's annual Athletics Carnival in the under 16s age group which was not broken until 2004.

Okon left Marconi Stallions in 1991 for Club Brugge, and due to a series of excellent performances at sweeper won the Belgian Golden Shoe (95/96), the Belgian Jupiler league (95/96) and two Belgian Cups (94/95 and 95/96). These performances captured the attention of some of Europe's biggest clubs, and in 1996 Dino Zoff - then coach of Italian giants SS Lazio - flew out to Belgium to personally sign the Australian, stipulating in his contract that Okon would play sweeper and promising 1st team football. However, with the departure of Roberto Di Matteo to Chelsea - forcing him to play in midfield - and a succession of knee injuries (a problem caused by a misaligned pelvis, the result of a childhood car-crash) resulted in game-time being limited. While he did return for the 1999 Scudetto decider (playing in the final game of the season against Juventus, which Lazio lost, handing the title to AC Milan) that summer he departed the Roman club.

This began a turbulent chapter of Okon's career, with spells at Fiorentina (99/00), Middlesbrough (00/02), Leeds United (02/03) & Vicenza(03/04) before returning to the country where he made his name with Oostende in 2004. After a brief spell with APOEL FC in Cyprus, Okon returned to Australia after missing out on selection for the 2006 World Cup, a victim of the change of system which resulted in their qualification.

He signed with A-League club Newcastle United Jets for the 2006-07 season. Okon fit into a well constructed Jets side and helped then make the playoffs in 2007. Due to injury concerns, Okon decided to retire from professional football in June 2007. Okon played for amateur team West Ryde Rovers's Over 35 Division 1 team in the GHFA.

Managerial career

On 24 June 2008, along with Alex Tobin, Alistair Edwards and Nicola Williams, Okon was a recipient of an inaugural three year scholarship under the Elite Coaching Development Program led by the FFA. As part of the program, Okon spent time at Coverciano with the Italian U-23 side under Pierluigi Casiraghi in the lead up to the 2008 Olympic Games, and spent a stint studying the youth setup of PSV Eindhoven.

On 2 September 2008 Okon was appointed assistant coach to Miron Bleiberg at Gold Coast United for their inaugural season. Before taking up his new role he took up an interim coaching role at APIA Leichhardt for their 2009 NSW Premier League season.

On 30 October 2008 Okon was appointed to lead the Australian U-18 side at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in the month of January, aimed as part of a long term view towards establishing the team for the 2012 Olympic Games.

On 23 February 2010, Gold Coast United announced that Okon's contract would not be renewed, following the team's loss in the first round of the A-league finals. Since then he has gone away on tour with the Australian Olympic under 23 squad for a tournament in Vietnam where he was assistant coach to Aurelio Vidmar.

National team statistics

Template:Football player national team statistics |- |1991||1||0 |- |1992||0||0 |- |1993||1||0 |- |1994||1||0 |- |1995||1||0 |- |1996||1||0 |- |1997||0||0 |- |1998||0||0 |- |1999||0||0 |- |2000||11||0 |- |2001||9||0 |- |2002||0||0 |- |2003||3||0 |- !Total||28||0 |}

Honours

With Australia:

• OFC Nations Cup: 2000

With Club Brugge:

• Belgian League Championship: 1995-1996
• Belgian Cup: 1994-1995, 1995–1996

Personal Honours:

• Belgian Golden Shoe: 1995-1996
• NSL Papasavas Medal (U-21): 1989-1990, 1990–1991
• Oceania Footballer of the Year: 1996

External links

• Oz Football profile